Posted on 08/20/2006 4:41:16 AM PDT by white trash redneck
British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.
The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.
Passengers told cabin crew they feared for their safety and demanded police action. Some stormed off the Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 minutes before it was due to leave the Costa del Sol at 3am. Others waiting for Flight ZB 613 in the departure lounge refused to board it.
The incident fuels the row over airport security following the arrest of more than 20 people allegedly planning the suicide-bombing of transatlantic jets from the UK to America. It comes amid growing demands for passenger-profiling and selective security checks.
It also raised fears that more travellers will take the law into their own hands - effectively conducting their own 'passenger profiles'.
The passenger revolt came as Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary was accused of using the terror crisis to make money. Government sources say he boasted to an official at the Transport Department: "Every time I appear on TV, I get a spike in sales."
The Tories said the Government's failure to reassure travellers had led the Malaga passengers to 'behave irrationally' and 'hand a victory to terrorists'.
Websites used by pilots and cabin crew were yesterday reporting further incidents. In one, two British women with young children on another flight from Spain complained about flying with a bearded Muslim even though he had been security-checked twice before boarding.
The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her.
Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches.
Initially, six passengers refused to board the flight. On board the aircraft, word reached one family. To the astonishment of cabin crew, they stood up and walked off, followed quickly by others.
The Monarch pilot - a highly experienced captain - accompanied by armed Civil Guard police and airport security staff, approached the two men and took their passports.
Half an hour later, police returned and escorted the two Asian passengers off the jet.
'There was no fuss or panic'
Soon afterwards, the aircraft was cleared while police did a thorough security sweep. Nothing was found and the plane took off - three hours late and without the two men on board.
Monarch arranged for them to spend the rest of the night in an airport hotel and flew them back to Manchester later on Wednesday.
College lecturer Jo Schofield, her husband Heath and daughters Emily, 15, and Isabel, 12, were caught up in the passenger mutiny.
Mrs Schofield, 38, said: "The plane was not yet full and it became apparent that people were refusing to board. In the gate waiting area, people had been talking about these two, who looked really suspicious with their heavy clothing, scruffy, rough, appearance and long hair.
"Some of the older children, who had seen the terror alert on television, were starting to mutter things like, 'Those two look like they're bombers.'
"Then a family stood up and walked off the aircraft. They were joined by others, about eight in all. We learned later that six or seven people had refused to get on the plane.
"There was no fuss or panic. People just calmly and quietly got off the plane. There were no racist taunts or any remarks directed at the men.
"It was an eerie scene, very quiet. The children were starting to ask what was going on. We tried to play it down."
Mr Schofield, 40, an area sales manager, said: "When the men were taken off they didn't argue or say a word. They just picked up their coats and obeyed the police. They seemed resigned to the fact they were under suspicion.
"The captain and crew were very apologetic when we were asked to evacuate the plane for the security search. But there was no dissent.
"While we were waiting, everyone agreed the men looked dodgy. Some passengers were very panicky and in tears. There was a lot of talking about terrorists."
Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said last night: "This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally.
"For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense."
Monarch said last night: "The captain was concerned about the security surrounding the two gentlemen on the aircraft and the decision was taken to remove them from the flight for further security checks.
"The two passengers offloaded from the flight were later cleared by airport security and rebooked to travel back to Manchester on a later flight."
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga said: "These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane."
A "victory for the terrorists" my ass.
The politicians realized that this was a loss for themselves... They're just starting to realize that in a marginally representative / democratic country, the politicians can't rule against the wishes of the citizenry forever.
Democracies tend to put up with a lot of crap, then suddenly explode in fits of collective rage. If this Tory a-hole thinks this incident was bad, he should wait to see what happens if they don't show some real results soon. Think interment camps & nukes.
Hey - a boy can dream, can't he?
;-)
And don't forget the LTTE. Most of them are Hindu, but a large percentage are also Christians.
As to the article as a whole, I wish they did say exactly what language they were speaking.
"These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally."
Just the opposite; they behaved rationally under the circumstances.
I say this half in jest, of course, before somebody starts flaming me about how impractical it is. :-)
"For those unfortunate two men to be victimized because of the color of their skin is just nonsense."Spoken like a true bureaucrat.Sounds like a democrat.
Baloney! Everytime we put pressure on the Muslim community it is a VICTORY for peace and freedom. Muslims need to reform or convert to a real peacful religion. They need to reign in their own, or suffer a little.
lol, my wife said the same thing to me minutes before reading your post. Her idea was for Saudi Arabia to set up an Arab only airline. I added, they have to have a self distruct mechanism before entering civilized countries that then can be triggered if they head toward any buildings.
Are you sure it wasn't EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation?
Hippies love downloading stuff.
Look, if Muslims had their way, we would all be living under Sharia law and be treated as dhimmies - low class citizens and have to pay them a tribute or be executed. I say it's time to give them a taste of their own medicine. The moderate Muslim community has refused to police their own radicals and so it must be done -- so our civilization can survive.
"Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim."
Prety close. But there are a FEW nonmuslim terrorists. AND islam, as well as most muslims, support terrorism as a way to spread their cancer. THE terror problem is islam.
Back in the 70s, the Palestinians recruited white leftist terror groups like the Bader-Meinhof gang to carry out terrorist acts.
One terrorist act on an Israeli airport was carried out by the "Japanese Red Army Faction."
Don't think the same thing cannot happen again.
The governments can be PC all they want, but it seems that the average citizen has a bit more commonsense.
I wonder how long the airlines will allow the passengers to determine whether or not a plane flies? Would the airlines ever arrest passengers refusing to allow the plane to fly. or do the passengers now have full authority?
I don't think the passengers interfered with the aircrew. They just got up and left and let the aircrew know why they were leaving.
I can't help wondering if those two fellows weren't traveling to
Manchester for a particular reason.
Which can be found in the last sentence of the linked article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686661/posts
Sharp eyes there!
You could just ask folks to spit on a copy of the koran before boarding to prove they're not muzzys.
Owl_Eagle
”You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being”
Does anyone know if the Earth Liberation Front has been officially classified as a terrorist organization? I'm just curious since our local peace-nik group just had a fund raiser for ELF.
Are you sure it wasn't EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation?
Hippies love downloading stuff.
=====
Don't ask me why, but that's a ROTFLMAO. Aren't most hippies part of the "if it's free, it's for me" School of Thought?
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