Probably not a dry run, but creating a “look at us, we’re poor, oppresses, muslim victims” situation.
The fact that they went after a smaller carrier (AirTran), which can’t absorb the impacts from a profiling lawsuit like the larger carriers can, is a pretty good indication of what their motivations are. As is how it happened on the 3rd anniversary of USAir 300.
There are two possible solutions to this. First, it’s time to put video cameras into airplane cabins, just like many jurisdictions do with busses (school and regular), subways and the like. Loss of privacy for the passengers, yes ... but it’ll both act as a deterrent to this sort of nonsense and provide a visual/audible record for use in defense of lawsuits and possible prosecutions.
Second, there should be a pool of Air Marshal “floaters” staged at every airport. This kind of sh*t happens and the airline is required to allow the disruptors back onto the plane, a couple guys with visible badges and guns go on board as well and sit in the front and rear jumpseats. Again, this acts as both a deterrent and an additional set of eyes (LEO eyes) to whatever continues to transpire. It’ll also help calm the passengers who choose to stay on board.
Dry run (heading into holiday travel season) -vs- lawsuit baiters -vs- internet hoax
I want to know why we don’t have a better answer to such nonsense as this?
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.
probably was just a attempt to start a BS lawsuit.
othewise they would have waited until the plane was off the ground. they wanted to get arrested, but probably thought they might not survive a plane full of fired up passengers kicking their butts if they got in the air.