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Below is an email I received regarding that flight.

One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father. On Tuesday, November the 17th, I returned home. If you read the papers the 18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone before takeoff. It was on Fox.

This was NOT what happened.

I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she was not there.

The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now….they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don’t ask me….I don’t make the rules, but I’ve studied) The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said “shut up infidel dog!” She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say “I got your back.” I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said “you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!” As I “led” him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, “You WILL do the same!” He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.

We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and told the agent “we and our crew will not fly this plane!” After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. 5 minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.

Again…..this is where I had had enough!!! I got up and asked “What the hell is going on!?!?” I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly. I said “I’m getting off this plane”. The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off. (now I’m mad!) I said “I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who’s time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I’m going through that door with you under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!” And I heard a voice behind me say “so am I”. Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same. Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got here at 12:30am.

Look up the date. Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.

If this wasn’t a dry run, I don’t know what one is. The terrorists wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the passengers would handle it.

I’m telling this to you because I want you to know….

The threat is real. I saw it with my own eyes….

-Tedd Petruna

Great, thanks for posting that. It’s the most detailed info that has come out prior to this article.

SNOPES deals with it because it seems so much the stuff of an internet hoax. Where’s the scrutiny that should be taking place? It’s coming from internet, not from OM.

This incident, mind you, happened several weeks ago, during preThanksgiving travel.

IMO. We are at war. The enemy is within, starting in the WH, and its basically a religious war started by a cult that refers to itself as a religion. Its no more a religion than Scientology.

thank you for posting this. Scary scary stuff.

I still doubt the accuracy of this e-mail. But for purposes of this thread, I will first bring up one obvious error. The existance of one obvious error does not necessarily mean other items are wrong, but necessarily cast doubt on other facts mentioned in the e-mail.

Quoting from the main article, which appears to be well-researched:

According to flight logs and information from one of the flight crew who continued with the flight, AirTran 297 ultimately departed Atlanta and arrived in Houston later that evening. Quoting from the e-mail:
Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled.

It is clear the flight was not cancelled
On another point, the main article states:
Some passengers and flight crew, traumatized by the blatant actions of the Muslim passengers, refused to travel with the Muslims who caused this orchestrated disturbance.

This strongly suggests that only a few passengers got off, and only a portion of the flight crew (my guess would be the flight attendants who were accosted verbally by people who were allowed back on the plane.
the e-mail states that the entire flight crew left the plane, to be replaced 5 minutes later. But there is no way an entire flight crew left a plane unattended with passengers in it. Even IF the crew was all leaving, the cockpit personnel would have waited for the replacements to arrive.
SOme of the e-mail is corroberated by the main article, although off in details (that could easily be gotten wrong in a true story), like the number of muslims (13, rather than 11), or that only 10-11 were left back on, not the original two that caused the problem.
I also didn't know how the e-mail passenger could know what people in the back of the plane were watching on a video; the main article gives no indication that ANY passenger was able to identify what they were watching, and a stewardess said she thought they were filming.
My GUESS from this article is that these men decided to cause trouble, in the hopes that they could film people acting badly so they could raise sympathy for their cause (they seem to be part of a radical muslim organization according to the article).
But that tells me that if the man in this e-mail had actually man-handled one of the muslims, and his texas friend had done the same, that we would have seen a video of it, or the muslim organization would have issued a press release about how innocent muslims were being beat up on planes by white guys.
Since there has been no mention about this incident from the muslim organization, it is my OPINION that nothing happened on the plane that the organization could use to make their case, which means i think that there was no attack on them.
It's all speculation -- I don't KNOW that the e-mail is false, and I would have a tendency to believe the e-mail more if the passenger who reportedly wrote the e-mail was interviewed on TV -- all we have is an e-mail from someone we don't know, which CONTAINED an e-mail from a supposed passenger.

About my last point — when I last saw this e-mail, it was put in a thread as an e-mail from a person in florida, who had received an e-mail from someone on the flight.

If you are in fact the person in florida, and therefore actually know the passenger on the flight and can vouch for him, that would raise the credibility for me. I didn’t think about that possibility; I took your “an e-mail I received” to be the general “there’s an e-mail going around, and someone sent it to me”.

bttt

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