This story is amazing to me: a muslim family is on an airplane, describing the safest place to sit, and they get yoinked off the plan after someone tips off the airline to the possibility of terrorism and interviewed by the FBI. That's bad enough, but then, after the whole family is cleared, the airline refuses to even rebook their flight, and won't let them back on ANY flight:
"The airline told us that we can't fly their airline," Irfan said.
Even the FBI asked the airline to let the family back on the plane: Airtran keeps insisting that they're just "following homeland security procedures." Which COULD be a plausible (if still dickish) argument, but look at this quote:
"The conversation, as we were walking through the plane trying to find our seats, was just about where the safest place in an airplane is," Sahin said. "We were (discussing whether it was safest to sit near) the wing, or the engine or the back or the front, but that's it. We didn't say anything else that would raise any suspicion."
The conversation did not contain the words "bomb," "explosion," "terror" or other words that might have aroused suspicion, Irfan said.
and also:
"The FBI agents actually cleared our names," said Inayet Sahin, Irfan's sister-in-law. "They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, 'There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,' and they still refused."
I don't know all of these Homeland Security Procedures, but if they include kicking muslims off of your plane, and refusing them any further access to your airline because they make a comment about where they sit that has no link to terrorism, and could not possibly be construed as a direct link to terrorism by any reasonable person, it's clearly just racial profiling.
Natch, we knew that the security measures adopted in the US in the wake of 9/11 included racial profiling, but at least then the FBI was going by some procedure using their (flawed) intelligence. I'm not defending the rouding up of people with suspicious names, but this is seven years later and this is a private company that is totally bound by the non-discrimination in public accomodations portion of federal law, and the decision makers are being huge jackasses.
This is so stupid it makes me incoherent. I hope that the new administration clears up these "security procedures," or we're just going to have another four years of all muslims being de facto terrorists. I'm just glad two of the people affected were attorneys.
Here's the link.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Airtran Sucks, does not know discrimination laws for public accomodation.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/11196
I was recounting the story of this weirdness to my parents over dinner tonight and my dad said "well, maybe they were just being cautious..."
He seemed to understand that not all asians are would-be bombers (I mean he should - we did after all spend New Year's with the family of my mum's asian best friend), but didn't quite see the situation as being racist.
I tried to tell him that if you look at all the 'terrorist' attacks (including mass shootings etc) and similar in the US over the years, it's rather more likely to be a white person involved in planning it than a foreigner, and tried to ask him that since when is it illegal or even suspicious to discuss the safety of the plane you're getting on with your whole family in tow.
He even agreed that if it had been a white group of people, let alone people with young children, they would never have been reported. But he still said it was just people being cautious.
I mean, what sort of person openly discusses a terrorist plot anyway if they really have one?
We live in the UK, and as most people know, the IRA is the organisation responsible for a lot of attacks here over the years, and Irish people are generally accepted into society - unlike asians who are still subject to an awful lot of excessive suspicion though :o/ People seem to recognise that not all Irish people are evil, but don't show the same courtesy to those with different levels of melanin in their skin.
And I say asians specifically because it's not just muslims who come under suspicion, it's anyone who 'looks' like one.
I don't know. Sometimes I just don't get how people's brains work.
I dug up this MSNBC article on some people's experiences of increased racism since 9/11..It's from 2007: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20607709/
On a lighter note, this did remind me of an American geologist my ex used to work with over here...He was a nutty Californian and used to zoom all over the world collecting rock samples, specifically from volcanoes...One time, he was arriving back in the mainland US from Hawaii, and someone at the airport asked what was in his rucksack...He was quite honest and said it was a volcanic bomb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_bomb)...Needless to say he was detained for some time.
If you're talking about Air Transat, they don't have a rep as being a very classy operation, so it's not very surprising. My Dad used to work for one of their sub companies and his experience was horrible. They're cheap, cheap, cheap.
My mum has worked for Air Canada for 20 years and I've heard some really crazy stories about people from her. With regards to the recent security, she has told me a few stories of this type- for example, once there was an orthodox Jewish couple traveling I think,dressed in black, etc and someone heard them say something or saw them talking into their cellphones in the airplane, grew suspicious and reported it to the crew. The result was that the plane was taxied back to the airport from taking off, there was a huge search, a long delay of hours, and in the end nothing was found. These incidents aren't uncommon at all.
yeah, I've heard bad things about them as well. Seven years later and this is still going on...
I heard that the airline eventually apologized and refunded their money, but the whole thing was ridiculous and shouldn't have happened in the first place.
While the wheels of justice turn slowly and, sadly, many times not at all for survivors of abuse, consumers have the opportunity every day to make themselves heard with their pocketbooks. Wrigley's reaction to this disturbing incident taints their product. I think it's a poor business decision not to terminate the contract bedroom furniture entirley and a missed opportunity for a major corporation to make a statement around abusive relationships.