Posted on 10/30/2007 3:11:46 PM PDT by radar101
SAN DIEGO – The takeoff of an American Airlines flight out of Lindbergh Field was canceled in August because the crew was suspicious of several Middle Eastern passengers, an investigative report said. The crew notified the captain, who canceled the flight.
At the time, the airline said it was a woman traveling with her two small children who raised the alarm.
According to the airline's account of the incident, the woman said the men made her so nervous she asked to be let off the plane, and the ensuing delay pushed the Aug. 28 flight to Chicago past the 11:30 p.m. curfew on takeoffs.
American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner referred to it as a “customer dispute.”
But a report from the San Diego Harbor Police, which was released this week under the California Public Records Act, said members of the flight crew said they were nervous about a group of the Middle Eastern passengers and did not feel safe.
One flight attendant told investigators the behavior of the group made him nervous and was “making his hair stand on end.”
He said that one of the men went into the bathroom and when he came out he stood next to a woman and stared at her for three to four minutes. That passenger got off the plane.
The flight attendant also said that another man in the group began to stare at him in an “abnormal, unusual and intense” way. When he mentioned that to the other attendants, they each said they felt they were being stared at in the same fashion.
“It was like each of these (Arabic) passengers had their assigned attendant,” Kotsonis said.
Another flight attendant told investigators he had “a gut feeling and discomfort” and “needed to do something” after one of the men put a blanket on his head during the safety demonstration only to take it off and stare angrily at everyone around him.
After the passenger got off the plane, the crew talked among themselves and decided to notify the pilot about their concerns.
The pilot said in the report that this was the first time in 20 years of flying that a crew had indicated such feelings to him.
According to the report, the pilot said he had “complete trust in his crew and did not feel like they overreacted.”
It turned out that the group of seven Iraqi and Iraqi-American men worked for an Alaska-based defense contractor and had been training U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton. They have hired a lawyer.
Racists!!!!!!!!!!
< /lib response >
"Hey, guys, want to score a fortune from these American sheep? Here's all we need to do ..."
Of course they have.....I'M OFFENDED PAY ME.
I heard the FBI paid for CAIR to conduct "sensitivity training", but the Marines?
Probably on our dime.
Cue outraged statement from CAIR in 3...2...1...
}:-)4
We have cameras everywhere else. Why not in planes?
I heard the FBI paid for CAIR to conduct “sensitivity training”, but thI heard the FBI paid for CAIR to conduct “sensitivity training”, but the Marines?
Would be willing to bet they were actors, helping to train Marines how to assault houses and buildings in towns and what to expect from both civilians and terrorists.
Jack
We not only have sappers within the perimeter...we have invited them here and are paying them.
Oddly enough, this is a crime in PA only if he happened to be staring at a woman breast-feeding. But it’s not a crime on an airplane?
***************
“They have hired a lawyer.”
They keep up these antics on planes, next time they may have to hire an undertaker.
Enough of this crap. Effen aholes.
I noticed the “a woman traveling with her two small children who raised the alarm”
As if the fact that she had two young children makes her suspicious, paranoid, and less fit for credibility than if she had no children with her ?
Another sci-ops on desensitising populace into accepting any strange behavior? Dry run without any compromising stuff. Then outrage and lawering people into submission. It may work on some, maybe many, but not all.
wow, cameras in planes. duh. what a great idea.
Two children with her would make her more aware of her surroundings.
When you have children of your own, and you suddenly become their only protection against an indifferent or even cruel world, hopefully, your understanding of the above will blossom.
If it doesn’t, your children will be in constant danger without any protector.
I know. I have two little ones of my own.
I'm sure the Marines don't deal with CAIR. I'd call it cultural awareness training. We are in a war in an Arab country. Makes good sense to know something about our Arab allies and our Arab enemies.
I was at physical therapy, and there was a guy about your age, and mine, maybe a little older than me. :) who is an Iraqi American, of long standing, well before the first Gulf War. He worked for a similar contractor, doing similar work, but for the Army. He was complaining that due to lack of such cultural awareness, and a different focus, that Army contracting officers were being gouged rather badly by the locals in Iraq, because they wouldn't dicker. They also tended to look at the original price/offer and compare it to US prices/costs, not those in Iraq. He related several incidents.
While he had been an Iraqi national way back when, he said his ancestry was English and Indian, but I don't know about that, that nose looked awfully Arab. But that could have been from some female ancestor, and they don't count, even for that old, probably Christian, Iraqi. (He lived in El Cajon CA for most of the time prior to going to work for that contractor. Unless he was pulling their leg, I'd say he could use a little American cultural awareness when it comes to dealing with American female medical personnel. (a Japanese American retired military female medical type. The poster on the wall said "No Whining", and one that said, "No dissing the women" might have served him well. I was doing 7.5 pounds on my ankle (for the knee) after 4 weeks, and am a big guy with fairly strong legs, by necessity. She had him up to 15 pounds, and he was in some serious pain. :) )
FYI, this article is the follow up to this original thread:
Airplane Passenger Dispute Involving Six Iraqis Forces Jet Evacuation in California
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889256/posts
With this staring and intimidating looks, etc., the passengers and crew should file a tort action for intentional infliction of mental distress. I know I would.
“the crew was suspicious of several Middle Eastern passengers”
Now, why might they have been suspicious?
Thanks for the ping.
““It was like each of these (Arabic) passengers had their assigned attendant,” Kotsonis said.”
Probably the plan all along.
Obviously a deliberate act, a trial run.
They were detained hopefully
“They have hired a lawyer”
“But of course!”
They’re going to need one. The passengers, as well as the airline company itself, has every right to countersue. They were severely incovenienced and suffered emotional distress because of these idiots.
Thanks for the info and for posting the old thread. I was confused for a sec because it sounded familiar.
Plot thickner ping
Thanks, O.
Sounds like deliberate “incident incitement” to me.
Iraqis are training our marines? If they’re that good why aren’t they in Iraq training their military?
I get stared at from closeup by one of those yahoos, he’s getting challenged back right on the spot. Might as well find out BEFORE the plane takes off.
Thank you, another airline I can add to the (short) list
that isn’t afraid of erring on the side of caution with
people who play stupid games like this.
It’s just as well for everyone that plane cancelled...
Like I said after the “Flying Imams” incident on the US
Airways flight.. news flash! No one cares about your
freedom of speech/expression at 30,000 feet..
Fly any airline you like, but if you start seat-hopping,
chanting “Allah Akbar!” and “Death to America!”.. you’re
either gonna get 1.) handcuffed, 2.) roughed up by pissed
off passengers, or 3.) thrown off the plane in flight.
Take your pick, but it’s “your right” to act like a disruptive
idiot, it’s also our right as justifiably fearful and vigilant
Americans to stuff a sock in your mouth and tune you up, to
save our lives, if need be.
Ping.
As I said. There should be two flights to every destination. Flight 1 is for those who cry to CAIR about profiling - there will be no profiling on Flight 1.
Flight 2 is for normal people who don’t object to profiling obvious members of the cult of death.
Death cultists and bleeding-heart liberals will be on Flight 1.
Normal people will fly in peace on Flight 2.
I assume then that they have them? I never see videos.
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Me too but I was talking about by the airlines.
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Sounds about right.
I just was taking a jab at the FBI for hiring CAIR. You have to wonder why adults do crap like that.
bttt
Thanks, a lot more detail presented in this article.
It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.
Iraqis? Alaska-based contractor? News to me...
I may have checked out that contractor recently.
Thanks for the ping. I saw this one earlier. Shades of wondering whether previous passengers are getting immunity for reporting suspicious behavior or whether they will be subjected to litigation and identity acknowledgement. Same goes for the person who alerted authorities about the potential military base attack. Has anyone heard anything pro or con about protecting these people?
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