Two men were removed from Wednesday's flight ZB 613 that was due to arrive at Heathrow airport from Malaga, the reason being they were acting suspiciously and speaking Arabic. Spanish officers boarded the plane and removed the men after 20 minutes.
The incident started when some passengers refused to board the plane. "They went to the front of the queue, went to the back of the queue, and then they went and sat down by themselves" said one of the passengers.
The remaining passengers were removed as the luggage was swept for explosives. David Reynolds, of the British Airline Pilots Association said "Clearly, we can't have a situation where one passenger decides that another passenger isn't going to fly."
i shall never open my mouth in the west! and as an english speaker, i shall neer open my mouth in the east! AND as a spanish speaker i shall never open my mouth near th mexican border. AND as a greek speaker, i shall never open my mouth in turkey! anyone knows how hard is it to learn sign language??
they need to rewrite judeo-christian teachings and start promoting suicide. then we'll have a proportionate number of lunatics on both sides, and we can be equally suspicious of everyone! :D </ kumbaya>
the guy wasn't arabic. but my mother pointed him out and i started watching him. he was just standing by a wall, with an incredibly nervous look on his face... he was sweating, and looking around constantly, checking his watch. and he was getting on my plane.
just kind of freaked me out because if he was up to something, i would be stranded in the middle of the sky.
Great for a first job, I completely agree with Quantum1.5. I don't think that just because the two men were speaking Arabic was reason enough to remove them from a flight. With that said, any suspicious activities should be investigated further, sadly due to the terrorist attacks. So yes, the terrorists may be winning now, but in a few years maybe they'll realize that we're not giving up. I hope this will help prevent any further attacks in the US, UK, or anywhere for that matter, because terrorism is never warranted. -np-
I agree, the terrorists are definately winning. As far as looking nervous on a plane (or at the terminal), flying these days is fairly stressful, I'd be bloody nervous too. Not due to terrorists though, more because I'd be worried that 'security' would screw up or that somehow my name would be 'similar' to some terrorist suspect somewhere. I would imagine that it would much more stressful for anyone of middle-eastern descent though, since the presumption these days is that you are guilty until proven innocent.
i would rather have terrorism then lost civil rights as a result of it.. although my rights are still the same? well if i am losing rights then lets just say i have a better chance at getting rich than being killed by terrorist
For one, removing someone from a flight just because they speak Arabic is completely unacceptable.
Two, their "suspicious activity" quite possibly went no further than the simple fact that they were speaking Arabic. Anything else could be considered as a fear of flying, or a fear or being harassed by security people just for your ethnicity. Unacceptable.
Three, if I WAS Arabic, if I spoke English, then in these times I would choose not to speak Arabic in that sort of enviornment, for my own safety. Still, I feel that the fact people have to do these things is unacceptable.
Two of my best friends are Indian. Sihk, which means they wear a turban (and never cut their hair). Their father is a jewelry dealer, the man between the suppliers and the stores. He's a great man, an intelligent and kind man. Because of what he does, he frequently has to travel all over the world. After 9/11 he joked (sadly) that it seemed as if "random" was his middle name. Every flight he'd get on he'd be "randomly" selected for additional security checks.
Now they don't even bother to call it a random check.
This world, its terrible. People need to get their shit straight. I'm getting sick of all this foolishness.
Random's my middle name, too. I get checked at every security point on the way home, and they always choose me to open my luggage when I get to customs in Sydney. I'm blue-eyed with light brown hair and very pale skin.
Maybe I raise suspicion cause I smile at the security guards and don't roll my eyes when they want to search me.
you are joking about sign language? Damn u weren't!!?? *sigh* forget it! anyway... about "random"...ironically i only get randomly checked in the middle east... never in the UK or any of my other destinations... i must be a terrorist for the middle east!
Australian customs doesn't count. They are more concerned with foreign plants and animals than they are with terrorism. Maybe you just look like a farm girl or something.
i believe it's india, and when you look into how the Tamil Tigers operate i'm not surprised. They are a massive armed force, couldn't really beleive how dedicated they were
I cant believe how biased some people are to actually start demonizing the west for something that happened in Spain. Then people bring up something bout speaking English when its obvious, at least to me, that they speak Spanish in Spain. For a site that has so many self proclaimed unbiased commentators, you do a bad job of showing it. Sorry to anyone who takes offense to that and no I was not trying to single anyone out individually. Anyway, this event is quite sad and hopefully it doesnt have to happen again just because of fear and language barriers.
