"Hutcheson confirmed that it was ultimately the pilot's decision to postpone the flight. But he said the pilot was influenced not only by the complaints from passengers but by the actions of two federal air marshals on board, who had learned of the incident and reported it to airport police."
The pilot is the very last word on who may and may not fly with him. If he says they go, they go and as far as I know there is no recource except perhaps from the airline to the pilot.
Thanks to Velveeta on The Threat Matrix on FreeRepublic.com for pointing to this link and point:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475126,00.html
“’Safety’ Remark Gets Muslim Family Kicked Off Plane”
Friday, January 02, 2009
MyFOXDC.com
WASHINGTON —
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “An unnamed source told MyFOXDC.com that they overheard one member of the family talking about the safest place to sit on a plane if a bomb was on board, though the family denied the word “bomb” was ever used.
“We’re very careful about what we even say on the plane,” Atif Irfan, who was kicked off the flight, told MyFOXDC.com. “Even if we were to say that’s the bomb, we wouldn’t even say that on the plane because we know to avoid certain buzz words, and we’re very careful about this kind of stuff so, I don’t know where they would have thought this whole incident even started from, quite frankly, what words we used.””