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More on Muslim family kicked off of AirTran flight for questioning {Gadling}
Jan 5th 2009 6:40PM If AirTran had agreed to board the family on the next flight following the FBI's clearance, I would agree with you.
But they didn't.
They denied the family tickets AFTER the FBI cleared them for flight. In fact, the FBI agents felt so bad about the mistake, they personally intervened with the other airlines, securing tickets on US Airways.
At no time did any member of the family say ANYTHING inappropriate or threatening. Not one word. An ignorant teenage girl IMAGINED the whole thing.
No one with our government has gone on the record saying the family did anything wrong.
Do you honestly believe that if the family weren't Pakistani-American and Turkish-American this would have happened? You don't think the men in beards and the women in headscarves made a difference here?
Really?
I hope the next flight you're on, no one accuses you of being a terrorist.
More on Muslim family kicked off of AirTran flight for questioning {Gadling}
Jan 3rd 2009 4:48PM AirTran did acknowledge that they refused to the allow the family to board a subsequent flight. (See their first statement issued on airtran.com.)
At the time, according to Mr. Irfan's account on NPR yesterday, the FBI had cleared the family to fly. AirTran maintained in their first statement issued about the incident that they were not aware of the FBI's decision to clear the family.
Well why not? Given the circumstances -- the family seeking to board a subsequent flight -- why didn't the AirTran reservations person immediately call TSA and the FBI to verify the family's claim?
Mr. Irfan had nothing but praise to offer the FBI. The special agents personally went to US Airways to secure seats for the family to take to Orlando.
Given the TSA rules, the pilot had the discretion to kick the family off the flight. Fine. But TSA and AirTran bungled the handling of what happened next.
TSA humuliated the family by questioning them in the Jetway and allowing the rest of the passengers to walk past them during the process of deplaning. The questioning should have happened in a private location.
If it was not possible for the family to reboard the plane after it was rescreened and ready for take off, the FBI and TSA should have personally intervened to secure another flight at no charge to the family. According to Mr. Irfan, the FBI did intervene with US Airways to secure flights.
The bottom line is that this family did NOTHING wrong. A bigoted teenage girl imagined the whole thing. Once that became clear, AirTran and the TSA should have immediately issued a heartfelt apology. Neither did. Our government and the airline sounded like a bunch of talking heads, not human beings. It was only after media heat that AirTran offered to reimburse the family for the cost of the US Airways flight.
What's alarming for ALL of us is that by allowing a situation like this to happen, AirTran and the TSA essentially let the terrorists win. The flying public deserves better.
Yes, we need to take airline security very seriously. But doing so doesn't mean caving into anti-Muslim prejudice or treating people rudely. The TSA and AirTran did both and should be ashamed of how they handled this situation.
I don't believe for one moment that this ever would have happened had the family been white and women not worn Muslim headscarves and the men beards. People are nervous about flying all the time and were so before 9-11. To talk about that is no reason to be thrown off a plane.
Americans should stand up to this kind of bigotry. Today it's Muslim-Americans. Who will it be tomorrow?
