AirTran Removes Muslim Family From Flight, Refuses To Reseat After FBI Clears Them
AirTran removed a Muslim family and their friend from their flight, had them questioned by the FBI, and then refused to re-seat or rebook them after they were cleared by the FBI.
Atif Irfan says he and his family had been discussing the safest place to sit on an airplane, without using the words "bomb" or "explosion," as they took their seats. Another passenger assumed this meant they were going to blow up the plane, so she alerted a flight attendant, who removed Irfan's family, and their friend, who was coincidentally on the same flight, for FBi interrogation.
After the FBI realized that there was no threat, they asked AirTrain to let them reboard, but AirTran refused, instead choosing to refund their money and make them find a new flight. Irfan says his family deserves an apology.
"Safest" Seat Remarks Get Muslim Family Kicked Off Plane [CNN]
(Photo: zonaphoto) Thanks, Bryan!
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I heard this on the radio this morning... as I generally have quaint conversations with my friends about random things like safety on a plane, which seems especially appropriate if you're on a plane, I thought maybe this family was treated extremely unfairly, and maybe AirTran should have put them back on the plane, or given them a new flight.
I think the Irfans may be bigger people than any of us...because I bet most of us would want to get back on that flight just to sit next to the person who thought we were terrorists and just mess with that person all during the flight.
The family was on a rear engine Boeing 717 (a later version of the MD80 & DC-9). I typically book late and wind up in the back seats with a window view of nothing but the engines inches away. I don't feel safe back there either. They should splash photos of the accusers across the media also. Unfortunately once a complaint is made nobody wants to take responsibility and it just snowballs and escalates.
The rare times i fly i talk about the safest place to sit incase of crash or something too..
But since i'm a big white irish looking guy it's ok right? well wait.. i could be IRA.....
When I read the article this morning, these two things jumped out at me:
"When we were talking, when we turned around, I noticed a couple of girls kind of snapped their heads," said Sobia Ijaz, Irfan's wife. "I kind of thought to myself, 'Oh, you know, maybe they're going to say something.' It didn't occur to me that they were going to make it such a big issue."
The rest of the family was removed 15 or 20 minutes later, along with a family friend, Abdul Aziz, a Library of Congress attorney and family friend who was coincidentally taking the same flight and had been seen talking to the family.
It makes me sad that this is all it takes - to talk about airplane safety under the influence of being Middle Eastern. And I'd love to know what, exactly, is AirTran's excuse for not re-seating the family. Even the FBI tried to reason with them.
@DrGirlfriend: And the link to this article reminds me of something that has been bugging me lately - CNN has been really "cute" lately with their choice of titles. Under the "Top News" section at the bottom of the page, there is another link to this story titled "Muslims miffed after being booted off plane". Did it really need to be so flippant-sounding?
Get on the plane. Watch the safety demonstration in silence. Read the safety card in silence. Very discretely check the locations of the emergency exits. But don't ask any questions or discuss safety with your seat mate.
@LeJerk: Apparently, as long as you are willing to have everyone else on the flight be de-planed and re-screened. Depends on just how deep your revenge streak runs!
Let's be real honest with each other here. I mean everybody.
1) A white family of nine people get on a plane. They are dressed in contemporary clothing. Three of the young adults make a remark about where would be the safest place to sit on the plane in the event of an accident or explosion.
2) A brown family of nine people get on a plane. They are dressed in traditional clothing of Islamic people. Three of the young adults make a remark about where would be the safest place to sit on the plane in the event of an accident or explosion.
Hell why not:
3) A Chinese family of nine people get on the plane. They are dressed in clothing straight out of 1920's Shanghai. Three of the young adults in thick Chinese accents remark about where would be the safest place to sit on the plane in the event of an accident or explosion.
The reason why other people felt uncomfortable on the plane had everything to do with the appearance of this family. Those preconceptions and stereotypes led them to interpret those remarks differently then they would have with #1 or #3.
It was racism. Period.
@DrGirlfriend: And that makes me wonder, why does it matter that they're Muslims? Why does CNN think it's important that they're Muslims - non-Middle Eastern people can be Muslims too, and Middle Eastern people can be of another religion or no religion at all. I find it interesting that CNN chooses to be "cute" and at the same time blow it way out of proportion for focusing on an aspect of the story that isn't very important.
The article did not mention that TSA was the ones that requested AirTran remove the people off the airplane.
It failed to mention that everyone (people and bags) were re-screened.
AirTran was following the rules.
@Micromegas: racial profiling is acceptable to a degree.
And the FBI should check all complaints against people.
The fault is the airline not letting them back on.
@DrGirlfriend: THANK YOU. That has been bugging me all day. I think this goes a bit beyond "miffed."
Miffed is when your boyfriend forgets to take out the stinky trash AGAIN, this is in a whole different category.
The blatant racism here only goes as far as the passengers who reported the victims here. What is the airline expected to do in this situation? A potential threat, regardless of how credible, was brought to their attention. They are expected, if not obligated, to investigate it. Even one they were cleared, I think everyone can see why they didn't re-board them: because it would make all the other passengers uncomfortable. At that point I don't think race/gender/ethnicity even matter. Once a passenger is removed for a safety concern, be they white/black/brown/green, it's going to make all of the passengers uncomfortable if that person (or persons) is allowed to re-board. The real "villain" here is the dumbass passenger who decided to start this whole mess. I don't really think the airline did anything wrong.
@Pylon83: That's a legitimate point. But AirTran refunded their money, and made them find a new flight. They didn't rebook them, they just said "here's your money, find your own way home."
@Pylon83:
What the hell didn't Airtran let them re-board the plane? that makes no sense, they were cleared. If the other passengers still had a problem screw them. Let the passengers who fell uncomfortable leave the plane. It's not fair to make a group leave just some assholes feel uncomfortable
@hypochondriac:
Think about it. Do you expect the stewardess to get on the intercom and announce to the whole plane that the FBI cleared these people, so don't worry about them and the fact they were previously removed for safety issues?
@Circa 2009 _SteveDave: I hate the noise at the back of the MD80 and knowing that fan blades are whirling just feet from my head.
@Foibles and Weebles: I was on a flight two weeks ago, reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It's an amazingly good book, and anyone who's read it doubtless remembers the chapter concerning pilot mistakes on commercial aircraft and how inter-crew relations in the cockpit affect crash statistics. I was discussing this with my boyfriend, in a conversational tone, because it fascinated me so - and he actually shushed me because he was afraid another passenger would overhear my talk of plane crashes and assume the worst.
Of course, maybe he was just shutting me up because I wouldn't stop talking about Malcolm Gladwell. That's equally likely.
According to the Fox affiliate in Washington:
A source told FOX 5 the Irfans were not allowed on another Airtran plane because while at the gate trying to re-book their flight, someone in the family mentioned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and said the word 'bomb'.
@Pylon83: Don't announce anything, just have them re-board the plane. Everyone was offloaded and re-screened not just the Muslims. Why is it only the Muslim group that was prevented from re-boarding?
Logically if someone who was asked to disembark is allowed to re-board that means any problem was rectified. Only idiots would still worry
Big Fail by AirTrans. I'll bet other carriers were lining up to fly that family for free.
@Pylon83:
Forgot to add by not allowing them to re-board. The accuser might get the impression he/she was correct and they did pose a threat.
@Pylon83: No, the flight-attendant should have said "We're sorry, there has been a misunderstanding and the flight will now resume." If the paranoid passenger(s) didn't want to fly, they should have been allowed to get off the plane.
At the very least, AirTran should have rebooked them onto a later flight.
Just heard on ABC World News Tonight that the airline did offer an apology and a trip home today, but the Irfans aren't sure whether they'll take the flight, or take the airline company to court.
I say they show them just how American they really are and take them to court!
I can't believe people are excusing AirTran here. That family should have been rebooked on another AirTran flight or been compensated sufficiently to take a comparable flight with a similar airline, the flight schedule of which should have been provided by AirTran.
Knowing the sorts of prices this company usually offers, I find it hard to believe that their refund of an advance-pay ticket was remotely sufficient to buy a ticket on another airline.
The incident was racist on the part of the fliers, but AirTran has notoriously shite customer service, so I am not remotely surprised that they handled the situation this way. I won't jump to the conclusion that their decision not to rebook was motivated by other reasoning.
The thing I can't get over about this whole thing is...if these people really thought the plane was about to be bombed or run into a building, just what position on the plane did they think would possibly offer safety from that? None. This was racism, pure and simple.
Airlines should take security seriously of course. But AirTran refusing to reboard this family shows a fundamental lack of respect for the law. These folks are entitled to equal accommodation, the same as every other AirTran passenger. They deserve to be boycotted over this.
I would say they've lost my business over this but the truth is they never had it. I still haven't forgiven them for their fatal crash in the Everglades when they were still ValuJet. That was another instance of their flaunting the law by flying passengers with active oxygen generating cannisters aboard. The purchase of another air/flight certificate and the AirTran name might have fooled some people but it doesn't impress me. They're still the same less than savory company.
I don't blame them for talking about "the safest place to sit on a plane." Just look at recent runway crashes on the news where people died or nearly died!
If a plane crashed or fell from high in the sky, it probably wouldn't matter where you were sitting - but these runway crashes - it could make a big difference! Especially in winter, the chances of skidding off the runway due to ice is higher. And the chance of hitting another plane that is taxiing on the runway, especially in terribly crowded major airports...
Being near an exit can save your life. Look at that runway crash recently, was it Denver? The plane was ON FIRE but people were blocking the exits because they were GETTING THEIR LUGGAGE FROM THE UPPER RACKS! You have to be near an exit to protect your family from idiots who are more concerned with their luggage than the life of everyone on the plane! I don't care if your heart medication is in that suitcase - get the hell out. There are ambulances 100 feet from you on the ground to help you if it's that serious! In those narrow aisles, you couldn't even stampede your way out in a panic. It would bottleneck, killing everyone.
Yes, the chances of crashes happening are low, and it's still "safer to fly than drive" but people can't help being nervous. I get very nervous when I fly, even though I rationally tell myself over and over that it's the safest mode of transport and I'd be more likely to be hit by lightning than be in a plane crash. I just can't help it.
@KhaiJB: My uncle used to always want to sit in the back of the plane and that was his exact reason.
@Micromegas: You can call it racial profiling, but lets face it: 9/11 was not carried out by a "diverse" group, nor was it Irish Catholic altarboys at the helm. If there was a rash of people burning crosses, wouldn't you assume they were white? They almost certainly would be. That's why racial profiling is a necessary evil.
They got a refund, and working on getting their United tickets refunded too. AP story on apology, refund.
They were also offered a return flight, but the family-plus-friend has indicated they'll probably decline.
Nail 'em to the wall! There's no excuse to do this to anyone, ever, anywhere. Maybe a serveral-million-dollar lawsuit will explain to AirTran why discrimination is criminally wrong!
@LeJerk: they have to look stereotypically Muslim. So it's OK to talk shit about a Sikh, but not about a blue-eyed, blond Midwestern dude, even if he really is a terrorist.
Yes - I would guess based on the story it was benign idle chatter that every family has probably mused about. I doubt the same concerns would be raised if anyone else was prattling on about airplane nothingness.
By the way this quote was in the CNN story:
The families of Atif Irfan, a tax attorney, and his brother Kashif Irfan, an anesthesiologistCompletely off topic - but that made my brain perk up. Remember the movie American Beauty, when Chris Cooper as the bigot neighbor meets his new gay neighbors? One introduces the other as "his partner." Cooper blurts out "Partner huh - so what's your business?" One replies, "Well, I'm a tax attorney and he's an anesthesiologist."
@KhaiJB: OTOH, turbulence is felt more in the tail section. Any pitch motion is amplified back there.
@badgeman46: But 9/11 is one event. The Oklahoma City bombing was not carried out by people in that group. The "shoe bomber" wasn't brown-skinned either.
They need to take them to court and not accept anything in the meantime.
You people are forgetting one thing. They refused to let them on ANY flight.... not just the one they were scheduled. You honestly think the FBI was able to clear these people in time for them to board their flight?
@badgeman46: So then I take it by your logic that after Timothy McVeigh and the OK City bombing, the FBI should investigate every white fundamentalist who rents a Ryder truck?
@badgeman46: The other problem with racial profiling is it makes screening predictable and easier to circumvent. Look at Israel; suicide bombers there knew that the Israeli security forces did profiling that singled out young men, so they started sending women and elderly people in wheelchairs to do bombings.
@mythago: Seriously. Everything I read from the family suggests that these are veteran travelers wearily aware of the fact that they're unfairly under extra scrutiny right now. I'm finding them considerably more credible than an unnamed AirTrain CYAer.
@badgeman46: Problem is that most domestic US airplane attacks have been enacted by homegrown white guys. And, of course, a fair bit of the ground terrorism as well. Allowing 9/11 to drive policy while ignoring the rest of history may gratify xenophobia, but it doesn't make anybody safer.
Can we do this for all annoying passengers? Simply tell the flight attendant that they were talking about terrorist related stuff and they'll be kicked off? Or do they have to look like they are from the middle east?