Posted on 02/10/2004 8:41:16 AM PST by prairiebreeze
NEW YORK (Talon News) -- A pilot asked passengers on an American Airlines flight to raise their hands if they were Christians, telling them they were "crazy" if they weren't, some of the passengers said Monday.
Passenger Jen Dorsey told CNN, "We were just at the beginning of our flight. The pilot came on to greet everyone and give his comments for the morning, and he said he'd recently been on a mission trip, and he'd like all the Christians to please raise their hands."
Also speaking on CNN, passenger Karla Austin said the pilot commented, "'If you are a Christian, raise your hand.' He said, 'If you are not, you're crazy.'"
Dorsey agreed that the pilot had called non-Christians "crazy."
Another passenger recalled a similar experience in an interview with WCBS-TV in New York. Amanda Nelligan told the station the pilot said those who did not raise their hands were "crazy."
Austin said no passengers raised their hands.
The pilot asked passengers to look around at each other and use the flight wisely or "just sit back and watch the movie," Dorsey said.
The airline is investigating reports about Friday's Flight 34 from Los Angeles to New York, a company spokesman told CNN.
American Airlines said that if the incident were true it "would be against our policy."
In a statement, the airline said, "It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees to do while on the job."
American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said the pilot, whose name has not been released, denies using the word "crazy." CNN reported he told the airline that he had recently returned from a mission trip and was encouraging people to use the 4-hour plus flight to speak with other passengers about their relationship with God.
"American Airlines apologizes if anyone was made to feel uncomfortable by the comments of this pilot," Wagner told CNN.
Wagner declined to say whether the pilot has been grounded while an investigation is under way. The man, a senior pilot with the airline, did not fly again over the weekend, Wagner said.
Wagner would not say if the pilot had been scheduled to fly this week.
The result of the airline's investigation will not be made public because it is an internal matter, Wagner told CNN, adding it will be "handled internally according to American Airlines procedure."
Passengers were "shocked," said Austin, adding that some reached for their mobile phones and others used the on-flight phones.
"Just given the history of what's happened on planes in this country, anything can happen at this point. So we weren't sure if something was going to happen at takeoff, if he was going to wait until JFK to do something... But there was definitely [an] implication there that we felt that something was going to happen," Austin said on CNN.
Passengers complained to the flight attendants, who relayed their concerns to the cockpit. They were reassured that they had nothing to worry about on the flight, Austin said.
Attendants also told passengers they had contacted airline officials about the matter, she said.
About 45 minutes into the flight, the pilot apologized -- but his apology focused on the crew, not the passengers, Dorsey said on CNN.
"He came on and said, 'I want to apologize for my comments earlier. I think I really threw the flight crew off a little bit, and they are getting a lot of flack for the things I said. So I want to apologize to my flight crew,'" she said.
Wagner said the pilot offered to speak after the flight with anyone who wanted to discuss his comments.
Austin said on CNN that on her way off the plane she told the pilot "he should be ashamed of himself."
"He just nodded and looked to the ground, and that was it," she said.
It really wasn't that obscure.
WOULD YOU CONSIDER HEARING A MAN, JUST BACK FROM HIS HADJ ALL EXCITED ABOUT THE GLORIES OF ISLAM, TELLING ALL MUSLIMS ON THE PLANE TO RAISE THEIR HANDS AND THAT ALL NON-MUSLIMS WERE CRAZY TO BE A "REALLY NICE SURPRISE"?
The Advocate, a gay magazine, has a different take on this:
What Findiesen said, as best the stunned passengers could recall once they were able to move about the cabin and confer after Flight 34 took off, was this: "I just got back from a mission," Findiesen said after making a routine announcement about the plane being second in line for takeoff. "You know, they say about half of Americans are Christians. I'd just like the Christians on board to raise their hands."In the suddenly hushed coach section of the airplane, a few nervous passengers raised one hand, most no higher than shoulder level, none above tops of the seats.
"I want everyone else on board to look around at how crazy these people are," the pilot continued, with an intonation suggesting he was using the word "crazy" in a positive, even admiring manner. Evidently addressing the non-Christian passengers, he concluded that they could "make good use of [the flight], or you can read your paper and watch the movie."
I won't say anything of the kind. But there is a huge difference between earnestly spreading the word of God and spouting off over a megaphone.
That said, here is my main objection to what the pilot did: if I do not obey the pilot when I am on the plane, I can be arrested for "interfering with a flight crew". The instructions of pilot and the flight attendents must be obeyed.
I have no problem with that as it is a matter of security; however, it obliges the flight crew to understand that mandate and not abuse it. Spreading Christianity to those who are required by law to listen and obey is not the message of Jesus.
Huh? How do you draw that conclusion? Everyone has the right to an opinion. I found the venue somewhat appropriate.
Yes it would be very funny to me.
For some reason, I doubt that would be the case were you to really encounter the hypothetical situation presented.
AND your irateness is also very funny to me.
Huh? (again) I was answering in caps in a parody of your irateness.
Remove the blinkers from your eyes.
This was obviously a trial run by al-Qaida so see just how far they can go. On the actual hi-jack it's be "All Jews raise their hands"
What? Are you crazy?
Oceania is at war with EastAsia. Oceania has always been at war with EastAsia
Funny how that works.
and jim35, you have a stupid god.
It seems that the Christian pilot did not call non-Christians 'crazy.' The 'crazy' people were the Christians who raised their hands, and he used the term facetiously.
And Janet Jackson's "clothing reveal" was never intended to go as far as it did.
Then all I've got to say
God didn't make little green apples
And it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime
And there's no such thing as Doctor Seuss
Or Disneyland, and Mother Goose, no nursery rhyme
You obviously can't understand it then. As you have misinterpretted some very basic things I have said and have added others from your own imagination, while failing to address a very basic point. Sorry you're so easily confused. Good luck to you.
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