Posted on 08/30/2007 8:28:09 AM PDT by Froufrou
A woman who complained that some fellow passengers spoke Arabic and "had odd behavior" prevented a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight from departing San Diego, police said Wednesday.
Flight 590, scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. Tuesday, left its gate about 11:15 but returned to the boarding area after the woman, who was traveling with at least one child, indicated she wanted to get off the airplane. The flight then was unable to make Lindbergh Field's 11:30 p.m. curfew for departures, said Irene McCormack, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Harbor Police.
The flight, carrying 126 passengers, was rescheduled for midmorning Wednesday and arrived in Chicago in the afternoon, an American Airlines spokesman said.
McCormack said it is unusual for planes to return to the gate. She said it's usually for medical and mechanical problems or a disturbance.
The woman first complained to the flight crew that four to seven men were possibly speaking Arabic in the boarding area. The woman added that they "had odd behavior." The crew decided to return to the boarding area because the woman indicated she wanted off the plane.
The American Airlines spokesman indicated the plane returned to its gates because of a dispute between passengers. The spokesman didn't provide details on the dispute.
A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said it returned because of "suspicious activity on board the plane."
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, was upset about the airline's actions. He said television reporters told him that six Iraqi Americans were detained after a passenger became uncomfortable with the men speaking Arabic.
"It is one thing to flag suspicious behavior, but to flag a global language? We are deplaning people for who they are, not what they do," Rehab said.
The Associated Press reported Defense Training Systems had hired the men to train U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.
McCormack said no one was detained in the incident.
As the son of WWII immigrants I would wholheartedly echo your comments. Worse would have been if we had laughed in the presence of someone that was just treated to a 5 minute conversation in a foreign language. Speaking was bad, laughter was unforgivable
Good posting. Yes, we are more wary than pre 9-11. Yes, in so knowing, they might have prepared in better fashion.
If we could just have a return to the civility I remember as a child. Forget ‘p.c.’ and let’s be REALLY considerate and kind to one another. [/soapbox]
Oh I read it just fine (see post #80)
Totally irrelevant. That sounds like a private firm. Their sole motivation is profit.
Yes, yes and yes.
After we pass that Constitutional amendment outlawing Islam and forcing every Muslim out of the country, we need another amendment fobidding anybody from ever speaking anything other than English in the U.S. And that includes those pesky Cuban refugees. You want to get away from them commies in Cuba, you’d better learn English first!!!! /s
Are we to assume every spanish speaking person is MS-13 and run the other direction. Also I am not saying the woman was wrong i am just saying our society has become a bunch of bedwetters.
If we completely discount that because it came from the DBM, then that applies to the whole story; at that point why even discuss the story at all?
Sorry, I was just commenting on the story. Not directed at you.
“...amendment fobidding anybody from ever speaking anything other than English in the U.S.”
It’s been tried and failed, but I predict you will see it again. Obviously, you live in a place where you hear more English than I do. You want globalization? That’s your prerogative. I want no part of it.
Yes, good catch. I added the "who spoke Arabic" to fit the theme of the thread. I realized my 'bad' after I posted it. I made the change in my file. But I'm sure maybe just a few of them spoke Arabic, the other terrorist language.
This is America. They should be speaking English in public.
________
Wow. That’s just kinda weird.
I take it you’ve never traveled to a country where you did not speak the language.
Or do your guidelines only apply to foreigners visiting America, not Americans traveling abroad.
But there are 300 million people in the USA, where this woman was flying to and from. How many Arabic speaking people are here?
How many major terrorist events have happened in this country, with Mandarin, Hindi, English or Spanish speaking people. Oh well forget the Spanish ones.
Lets see,
There was a small group of Arab looking men...check
They spoke Arabic sounding languages...check
They acted suspiciously...check
They were on a plane acting suspiciously...check
Sounds like something else that happened 6 years ago.
One thing to keep in mind. These men were Arabic (or Arabic looking) going to a military base to train our military. That means there was some military based training behind them. These men are traveling together. What's their commonality? Their ethnicity and training. You put a group of US soldiers on a plane it might be hard not to notice that they're soldiers. Its going to be very natural for these men to interact with each other according to there commonalities.
The serious terrorists have a form of military training.
Would terrorists appear much different than these men?
Right, and profit is evil. Anyway it's not at all irrelevant to the discussion; it's evidence that the men are likely among the good guys. Probably.
Uh oh, I just wrote Arabic. I'm a bad person.
Yeah, they probably had a knowledge of Arabic. I got the point, though. Nice post. :)
Neither.
Muslims generally and arabs specifically are delusional. The actually believe that allah decided that they should rule the world.
That they are primitive, irrational, technically ignorant and incompetent and provide nothing to the advancement of civilization escapes them.
I’ll remind you that more than 3000 people were minding their own business on 9-11, and hundreds of them were on planes. I know, it won’t ‘ever happen again.’
I guess Todd Beamer should have just STFU.
Great question!
Stand by...
The son of a friend just got deployed from Camp Pendleton to Iraq ... and a good part of his training was in a mock village full of Arabic-speaking Iraqis.
I'll let you take it from there.
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