Do not let your guard down!

[Just thinking]

This is a quote from an email from a Texas gentleman on the flight. Real stuff...



"One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father. On Tuesday, November 17, I returned home. If you read the papers, you may have seen a blurb where an AirTran flight was cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone before takeoff. It was on Fox.
That was NOT what happened!
I was in first class coming home. Eleven muslim men got on the plane in full attire. Two sat in first class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway, the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the first stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she wasn't there.
The second man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the second stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger muslims, one in the back aisle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now, they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her (don't ask me, I don't make the rules, but I've studied). The third stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said, "Shut up, infidel dog!" She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic.
At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk to the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say, "I got your back." I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said, "you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!" As I led him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the second man and said, "You WILL do the same!" He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward, the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.
We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happened, when suddenly, the door opened again and on walked all eleven!! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and told the agent, "we and our crew will not fly this plane!" After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. Five minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.
Again, this is where I had had enough!! I got up and asked, "What the hell is going on?" I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly. I said, "I'm getting off this plane." The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off.
Now I'm mad! I said, "I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who's time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I'm going through that door with you under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!" And I heard a voice behind me say, "So am I." Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same. Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got here at 12:30am.
Look up the date. Flight 297, Atlanta to Houston.
If this wasn't a dry run, I don't know what one is. They wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the passengers would handle it.
I'm telling this to you because I want you to know. The threat is real. I saw it with my own eyes."

The threat is very real. Too bad they are more interested in Tiger Woods driving into the tree.

 

[ground stop]

nice try... where are you gonna find a complete crew ready to go in five minutes?

 

[najet]

Wow! If it came off the internet it must be true...

There are way too many red flags, in my opinion, for this too be true.

The entire crew walked off a loaded airplane? Even more unbelievably, they found another crew in 5 minutes?

 

[Just thinking]

ATL base, ATL crew, ATL to HOU flight...
Just trying to give a heads up. Choose to do what you wish.

 

[wild bill kelso]

do they have first class?

 

[Just thinking]

http://espositosmusings.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/air-tran-flight-297-incident1.pdf

Another perspective from a different individual.

 

[clippyrip]

This one stinks from a mile away. Total BS

 

[Linedriver]

What the hell is going on over there guys?

 

[jonjuan]

The third stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said, "Shut up, infidel dog!"

To which she replied: "OH No you Didn't......" Then, end of terrorist.

 

[Linedriver]

It's like my grandma used to say, "if you leave the door open you get flies in the kitchen!"

 

[Hair-on-Fire]

B.S.

Grow a pair.

 

[Green Banana]

I have seen little old ladies fall out the door of the airplane while the FA stands there and says "By LAW I cannot cross this line out the door, sorry." The fact that they all walked off the aircraft leaving a load of passengers on board makes me call BS.

 

[Dan Roman]

I'll call B.S too.
We all know there are people that make up that kind of crap to perpetuate fear, thinking they will get people to "keep up their guard" or further whatever agenda they have, what those idiots don't realize is they make us less safe (boy who cried wolf ).

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Early on article...who knows what to believe

FAA to investigate cell phone use on Atlanta flight




By Alexis Stevens and Kristi Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
8:41 p.m. Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what led to the two-and-a-half hour delay of a Tuesday flight from Atlanta to Houston, an agency spokeswoman said Wednesday morning.
An AirTran spokesman said a man traveling with a group Tuesday afternoon refused to turn his cell phone off before takeoff. But the woman sitting behind the man said it wasn't a phone at all, and feels the entire incident was the result of poor communication.
"He was not talking on a cell phone, it was a camera," said Nancy Deveikis of Marietta. "He was looking at pictures."
A flight attendant asked the man twice to turn off the device, Deveikis said. But it was clear the man did not speak English, she said. Although the man was traveling with others, the rest of the group was seated throughout the plane.
When the man did not respond to the flight attendant, she took the camera from him, Deveikis said. Deveikis, who presented ajc.com with her boarding pass for the flight, said she watched the exchange from directly behind the man in seat 28A and the female flight attendant.
"She grabbed it from his hand and basically said I'll be holding this until you get off the plane,"Deveikis said.
It’s unclear whether he was talking on the phone, snapping photos or texting, AirTran spokesman Christopher White said. But to airline officials and flight attendants, it didn’t matter. The Boeing 717 had pulled away from the gate, and the phone was on, White said.
“Flight attendants were telling him, ‘Turn off the phone, turn off the phone,’” White said.
“We can’t taxi with the cell phone on, and we certainly can’t take off,” White said. “Language barrier or not, you start to butt up against interfering with a flight crew.”
Deveikis said she never heard the one flight attendant use the word "phone" when speaking to the man.
“Passengers are required to follow instructions of the flight attendants," regional FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. AirTran reported the incident to the FAA, Bergen said. The federal Transportation Security Administration will not handle the incident, saying it is a customer-service issue between the passenger and the airline, a TSA spokesman said.
Houston-bound Flight 297 was scheduled to leave Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday. But the pilot decided to return the plane back to the gate, and the man and the group he was traveling with were asked to exit the plane.
Another person in the group – someone who could speak English – got off as well to act as an interpreter, White said.
So, why didn’t he leave his seat to help in the first place?
“He told flight attendants that he could have helped during the taxi time, but he didn’t want to get up,” as passengers are to be seated at that time, White said.
Deveikis said the flight attendant who took the phone told other members of the group, "If you're English-speaking, then maybe you should get off the plane, too."
Another flight attendant, Deveikis said, was in tears as she left the plane following the incident. A new crew later returned to fly the plane, she said.
AirTran gave the 72 other passengers on the plane the option to stay on that flight or switch to another one without paying any fees, White said. Of the remaining passengers on the plane, 12 decided to take another flight.
The 11 others in the 13-passenger group got back on the plane, which took off for Houston, White said. TSA officials spoke to the man with the electronic device as well as the other person who was acting as an interpreter, and they took a later flight to Houston, White said.
Deveikis said she remembers the original members of the group reboarding.
Deveikis, who often flies to Houston for business, chose to remain on the flight. She said the man with the camera and his entire group reboarded the plane. The whole incident, which scared other passengers who weren't clear what was happening, could have easily been avoided.
"Just one flight attendant snowed everyone into believing she had an irate passenger," Deveikis said.
Still, airline officials contend the right action was taken.
“It’s a fine line that we have to play,” White said. “Is there any safety or security reason to bring the plane back? Yes, there was a safety reason.”
White declined to identify the passenger. No charges were filed. And, for AirTran, the case is closed.
“Once we determine there is no other problem, it’s our responsibility to get everyone back on and get the plane taken off as quickly as we can,” White said.
Staff writer Megan Matteucci contributed to this report.
--------------------
Were you or someone you know on that flight? We would like to hear about the experience. Contact us at [email protected]. Thanks.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/flight297.asp Snopes isn't even sure...looks like some PC coverup to at least some extent (as evidenced in the AJC article above which doesn't even describe the group at ALL)

 

[Arkady]

"Shut up infidel dog!" Really!?

Are the terrorists forced to study cheesy hollywood B movies at the madrasas to get their self-stereotyping pre-attack cliche's? (Is the NSA monitoring their Netflix accounts?). Or are these just the cliche's they use on their 'dry runs'? Maybe they save the really zippy ones for the real thing?

EICAS message says 'BS'.

On the other hand this quote (from the 2nd version) is something that I can easily picture happening as I have seen this occur on more than a few occasions (an F/A, already having a bad day, escalating things from "Turn that off" straight to DEFCON 1). ----> "Just one flight attendant snowed everyone into believing she had an irate passenger," Deveikis said.

Anyway, I think the Snopes result says "mixed" because like most of the better lies & cons - there is a little bit of truth mixed in with the bs. (There was an Airtran flight from ATL to IAH that had some sort of pax problem ...but beyond that?).




Now, about this Nigerian Prince that keeps sending me emails - it turns out that he will make me filthy rich if I will just help him out of a little jam...

 

[AppBrookie]

AirTran has pilot and FA ready reserves in ATL, so a new crew on board in a few minutes is very possible.

 

[wms]

Now, about this Nigerian Prince that keeps sending me emails - it turns out that he will make me filthy rich if I will just help him out of a little jam...

Too late. I've already sent him the necessary information and my check is in the mail as we speak.

 

[jonjuan]

Too late. I've already sent him the necessary information and my check is in the mail as we speak.

Tank you missa. i let you know when we get.

 

[Abernathy]

I like how they were "Texans."