9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet
Others on Flight Say a Remark Was 'Suspicious'
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.
Not only were they evicted, they were not refunded the costs of the flight.
I call that wrongful accusation, but without the refunding or apologising I call that discrimination.
“Before death takes away what you are given, give away whatever there is to give.”
Mawlana Jalal ud Din Rumi