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.”