[Infowarrior] - 9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet

[Richard Forno]

9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet
Others on Flight Say a Remark Was 'Suspicious'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101932_pf.html

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 2, 2009; B01

Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young  
children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National  
Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what  
they thought was a suspicious remark.

Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were  
headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared  
for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a  
misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said  
AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on  
another carrier secured with help from the FBI.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began  
about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother's wife wondered  
aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport  
security," Irfan said. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the  
jets are right next to my window.' I think they were remarking about  
safety."

Irfan said he and the others think they were profiled because of their  
appearance. He said five of the six adults in the party are of South  
Asian descent, and all six are traditionally Muslim in appearance,  
with the men wearing beards and the women in headscarves. Irfan, 34,  
is an anesthesiologist. His brother, 29, is a lawyer. Both live in  
Alexandria with their families, and both were born in Detroit. They  
were traveling with their wives, Kashif Irfan's sister-in-law, a  
friend and Kashif Irfan's three sons, ages 7, 4 and 2.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson agreed that the incident amounted to a  
misunderstanding. But he defended AirTran's handling of the incident,  
which he said strictly followed federal rules. And he denied any  
wrongdoing on the airline's part.

"At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't  
have made on the airplane, and other people heard them," Hutcheson  
said. "Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened  
these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got  
out of hand and everyone took precautions."

Hutcheson confirmed that it was ultimately the pilot's decision to  
postpone the flight. But he said the pilot was influenced not only by  
the complaints from passengers but by the actions of two federal air  
marshals on board, who had learned of the incident and reported it to  
airport police.

As a result of that report, federal officials made the decision to  
order all 104 passengers from the plane and re-screen them and their  
luggage before allowing the flight to take off for Orlando -- two  
hours late and without the nine passengers.

Ellen Howe, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security  
Administration, said the pilot acted appropriately.

"For us, it just highlights that security is everybody's  
responsibility," Howe said. "Someone heard something that was  
inappropriate, and then the airline decided to act on it. We certainly  
support [the pilot's] call to do that."

Howe added that the TSA's involvement was limited to conducting a  
security sweep of the plane after the passengers were removed. Airport  
police officers' only involvement was to hold the passengers in  
custody until the FBI arrived, said Tara Hamilton, a spokeswoman for  
the agency that runs the airport.

Hutcheson said AirTran is not likely to reimburse the passengers for  
the additional cost of their replacement tickets on USAirways. He said  
they were given a full refund for their AirTran fares and may fly on  
the carrier now that the investigation is complete.

The detained passengers said that is not likely.

"It was an ordeal," said Abdur Razack Aziz, the family friend who was  
also detained. "Nothing came out of it. It was paranoid people. It was  
very sad."