Posted on 12/04/2009 4:34:32 AM PST by cyn
That was my opinion after reading this article. It sounds like one or two guys were supposed to “innocently” use their cell phones, and then the other guys would film the results hoping to catch someone doing something bad to back up a lawsuit.
That would also correspond with the two guys being kicked off, but the rest being let back on the plane — maybe the 11 couldn’t be directly identified as having done anything, and the airline realised kicking guys off just for looking like they were with the others could bring a lawsuit.
I can see why passengers and some flight crew would want to get off after that as well.
Maybe not a dry run? Could this be the actual terror event itself? Just keep doing this kind of stuff repeatedly and people become too afraid to go about their normal business.
This is a personal decision! However, I recommend it highly.
I no longer fly commercial aircraft. I will continue this practice until such time as all commercial airlines proactively and strictly enforce extra ordinary safety precautions regarding muslim passengers (and those appearing to be muslim).
1. No more than two such individuals on any given flight (NO EXCEPTIONS).
2. These passengers will be assigned aisle seats at the front of the economy cabin or at the rear of the first class cabin if the seat has been paid for.
3. These passengers will be allowed no carry on baggage, no electronic devices of any kind, no religious tracts, books, posters, or pamphlets on their person.
4. These passengers will not be allowed to sing, chant, hum, or otherwise voice any arabic language whatsoever. They will keep silent unless addressed by flight crew or other passengers. They will speak only English.
5. Pre-boarding inspection of these types of passengers will be a full body search including all clothing (including the turban). Anything considered "suspicious" by the TSA will be immediately confiscated.
Until these procedures are put in effect by commercial airlines, I will not fly.
The rest.....is up to you.
Account from a chaplain who was on the flight -- http://espositosmusings.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/air-tran-flight-297-incident1.pdfAir Tran Airways Flight 297 was scheduled to leave Atlanta at 4:43PM in route to Houston Hobby Airport. Because of my position as Corps Commander of the Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps, I frequently wear my Chaplain jacket as I travel. Like some sort of heavenly magnet, the Chaplain jacket invites discussion with a wide variety of people who are struggling with issues in need of a comforting ear. My connecting flight was late and the door to the jet way closed prior to my boarding. So, even though I was rescheduled on a much later flight far from C‐16 I settled down with a newspaper and only 1/4th of my remaining cell phone battery.
While waiting at the distant gate, I noticed on the scheduling monitors that Flight 297 had returned to gate C‐16 and was scheduled to leave at 5:45PM. I hurried back to gate C‐16 in hopes of boarding my original flight after it strangely returned to the gate.
SEARCH: Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps >> http://chaplainservice.net/hoh.pdf
Which, interestingly is a support group for victims of tragedy. If this is the group he's a part of, it explains his keen interest in the situation and why he got involved as he did.
All we can hope is that the FBI now have all of these guys under surveilence with help from the Patroit Act.
You don’t have to shoot all of the perps to dissuade them,just one.
That may be. ... could be also a combination in that other groups with more sinister motives would be emboldened by our helplessness to effectively deal with the situation.
Don’t we all just want to say “CUT THE CRAP!” to the misbehaving person (if indeed that’s all he is?) I want to know why there isn’t zero tolerance for someone who as in this case so willfully disobeys the repeated direction to put his device away, as much as for saying “I’ve got a bomb.”
Our weak protestations embolden the terrorists. There should be public outrage, but that won’t happen unless this info is made mainstream.
bttt
I assume they are in the front. I doubt he could hear what was going on in the back with the engines running.
I’ve never thought of an undivided section as “First Class”. If it was divided, the partition should have been drawn, blocking his view of the back of the plane.
What about Pakistani terrorists speaking Urdu, or Iranian Shiite terrorists speaking Farsi, or these Beslan type bastards from Central Asia speaking stuff like Uzbek or Tajiki??
Read the sentence above Point 1 again.
Besides, I no longer worry about who the commercial airlines are allowing on their flights. All they see is income from selling the seat. If cows had somewhere to go, and could pay, you'd be sitting next to Bossy on your next flight.
As I stated...I don't fly commercial any longer. Nor do I live anywhere near what might be considered a "target" by the islamic muslim warriors.
That said, I do have ample protection in my home for me and mine....in the event it's use is called for.
..how can we doubt the veracity of these accounts?
We argue over minutia while the terrorists rachet up their brazenness.
We have Fort Hood.
We have the four police officers killed...(suspicion the guy was Muslim)
The bombing of the luxury train in Russia...
..and no doubt countless more that our media is carefully omitting from reporting.
Who in the world would print any of this, or allow personal reports in the media about this...
..at Christmastime, when travel is at its highest level.
Who will take the blame when we gloss over this account as being too unbelievable...
..and thousands are massacred.
Obama would hold a press conference saying we shouldn’t jump to conclusions ... could be disgruntled Amish.
Another Terrorist Dry Run: Part II Interview With Witness Dr. Keith Robinson–UPDATEDIt is important to put this incident in context, right after the Ft. Hood shootings. IT AIN'T RIGHT.http://www.melissaclouthier.com/2009/12/03/another-terrorist-dry-run-part-ii-interview-with-witness-dr-keith-robinson/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+melissaclouthier%2FPTzm+%28Melissa+Clouthier%29
December 3, 2009 / 10:37 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier
Yesterday, I shared the account given by Tedd Petruna about Air Tran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston Hobby. Today, I interviewed Dr. Keith Robinson, Corps Commander of the Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps, as he actually took the flight, with the Arab men after Tedd and many other passengers got off the plane, once it was clear that both the TSA and Air Tran were going to allow the threatening passengers to stay on the flight.
Over at RedInk Texas, you’ll see how distorted the actual news accounts were of this incident. This incident was not just a matter of an unruly passenger refusing to hang up on a phone call. The whole flight crew refused to fly and had to be replaced.
Air Tran 297 is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Recall the Flying Imams controversy where the men sued the airlines and passengers and won a settlement from the airlines.
This circumstance occurred shortly after Major Hasan killed twelve soldiers at Fort Hood. The passengers were sensitized to a terrorist threat before the flight.
Dr. Robinson gave his first-hand account [find link here], typing up his impressions during the flight:
The flight crew hurriedly walked past me leaving the plane with their baggage. The flight attendants were emotionally shaken, red faced, in tears and were sobbing. A new flight crew was ordered for the flight. All remaining passengers awaited their next crew, unsure of the ultimate destiny of this flight. .... (goes on to cite from chaplain's account)...
As you say. It's crucial that the details be scrutinized to see what makes sense, what doesn't or needs to be further explained: that's the strength of FR. It's what brought us here in the first place and makes sites like this so important as the OM continues to let us down.
Even if some of the details we're looking at in an email are not correct (they are, after all, a single person's recall), it doesn't negate that something odd (in the least) happened on flight 297.
We know why we're not seeing this in the news. We need to be outraged by that as well as by the lack of coverage of the original story. If we are not ... then we are losing our edge.
comments from last night:
(comment #1) @ 5:49 PM Thu, Dec 03, 2009I'm putting this in hoax category unless they're willing to go on tv. And if things happened the way it did, they would have been on TV by now. But there was something weird going on, just read the article.
Why would the crew just leave if it was a dry-run. Wouldn't they have stayed on after it was explained? And for the person who said that stewardesses are not allowed to leave the plane, well this one did. And the article said she was in tears about something. This was not just a disorderly guy. Something went down but they don't want to say.
You do not have the crew, a stewardess and 12 passengers just get up and leave because some guy would not shut off his camera/phone.
Nothing happened in the end and maybe it was all nothing. But it still stinks.
(comment #2) @ 10:23 PM Thu, Dec 03, 2009
One of them has, Mr. Petruna has been warned by his superiors at NASA that if he continues to speak out about this he will be fired.
http://www.khou.com/news/local/AirTran-e-mail-stirs-up-Internet-firestorm-78474802.html
AirTran e-mail stirs up Internet firestorm
by Leigh Frillici / 11 News
Posted on December 3, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Updated yesterday at 6:40 PM
Related stories:
E-mail about AirTran flight 297 -- http://www.khou.com/news/E-mail-about-Air-Tran-flight-297--78469757.htmlAirTran statement about Flight 297 -- http://www.khou.com/news/Air-Tran-statement-about-Flight-297-78469042.html
The FAA is investigating an incident aboard an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Houston that touched off a firestorm of e-mails.
AirTran Flight 297 was delayed on November 17 after a passenger refused to turn off his cell phone.
An e-mail sent out by Houstonian Tedd Petruna, who was on the flight, said that wasn’t the whole story. According to the e-mail, Petruna and other passengers believed they witnessed a dry run for a terrorist attack. Petruna said he couldn’t talk on camera, but Chaplain Keith Robinson, who was also on the flight, did talk with us.
Robinson missed the original flight, but boarded after the plane taxied back to the gate because of the cell phone delay.
“Flight attendants were sobbing openly,” Robinson said.
Robinson said a passenger getting off the plane warned him not to get on. “He said ‘I just saw them there were these Middle Eastern men. They were taking pictures. They wouldn’t sit down, ‘” Robinson said. “Besides that, he said a couple of them were making gestures with their hand as if they were shooting people.”
Petruna’s e-mail said there were 11 Muslims on the plane and two of them ignored flight attendants orders to turn off their cell phones. He said they shouted at the flight attendants and he and another Texan had to intervene. Petruna said the 11 men were taken off the plane, but then allowed back on, angering the crew and some passengers.
In a statement to 11 News, AirTran said, “A number of the allegations included in the article posted by Mr. Petruna conflict with the statements obtained by the flight crew.”
A woman on the flight told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the man didn't understand the flight attendant because he didn't speak English. Petruna and Robinson have since compared notes about the experience. “He came across as very credible. I really look upon him as a patriot, not a nutcase,” Robinson said.
Petruna stands by his statements, with the exception of his description of the men’s attire. He also said he never witnessed the men watching porn, as he said in the e-mail.
Petruna said he never intended for the e-mail to be sent nationwide, but he’s “glad it got out.”
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