The latest update is that the guy wasnt even on the plane!!
http://www.ajc.com/business/airtran-flight-297-man-226517.html
AirTran Flight 297: Man who wrote e-mail not on plane, says airline
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It's a little easier to understand why a man who claimed to have thwarted a potential terrorist attack on a plane has not answered repeated requests to tell his story.
He was not on the plane, according to AirTran Airways.
"After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests (legally binding documents) that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways Flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight," AirTran said in a statement, which the AJC was the first to obtain.
An e-mail from a Tedd Petruna, which he told the AJC via a Facebook message Friday was intended only for friends and family, made the rounds online this week after one of those friends apparently forwarded it to others. In a matter of days, Petruna's account appeared in chat rooms, blogs and conspiracy theorists' Web sites.
The AJC was forwarded the e-mail dozens of times this week, as readers saw Petruna's tale and noticed conflicting information between it and earlier news reports of the flight delay Nov. 17.
Many of those who forwarded the message to the AJC added accusatory comments suggesting the paper was participating in a politically correct cover-up. The AJC made several attempts to speak to Petruna about the incident. He has declined throughout the week to respond to repeated e-mail and phone attempts by the AJC to talk to him.
Additionally, interviews between the AJC and people on the plane, airline officials and federal agencies did not corroborate his story of what occurred on the flight.
According to AirTran, shortly after 4:40 p.m. on Nov. 17, Flight 297 bound for Houston taxied toward the runway of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. But before the Boeing 717 made it to the runway, the pilot made the decision to return the plane to the gate. A flight attendant asked a male passenger twice to put away a cell phone or camera.
At the gate, the passenger -- who didn't speak English -- and a companion were asked to leave the plane, which they did without incident, the airline reported.
When it was determined the problem was caused by a language barrier, AirTran and TSA officials allowed the man, and 12 others traveling with him to re-board, and the flight left for Houston a little more than two hours later. Later, officials said the entire incident was the result of a miscommunication.
Nancy Deveikis was seated in seat 29A aboard Flight 297, directly behind an unidentified man who she believes spoke Spanish. Deveikis said the man was looking at pictures on a camera, and did not understand a flight attendant's requests to turn the device off.
Petruna's account of the flight was drastically different. It was forwarded to others by a man named A. Gene Hackemack, who vouched for him as a former NASA colleague. Petruna claimed he witnessed a incident involving Middle Eastern passengers on the flight, and attempted to stop the incident from escalating.
"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,' " Petruna wrote. Continuing, Petruna said 11 men dressed in "full attire" got on the plane together.
Hackemack, when reached by telephone earlier this week at his Texas home, stood by the story, and gave the AJC a home phone number for Petruna.
"Thank God for people like Tedd Petruna," wrote Hackemack in the e-mail he forwarded.
But there was no way Petruna could have seen what he described on Flight 297, AirTran said in a statement. Petruna departed from Akron-Canton, Ohio, on AirTran Flight 205 on Nov. 17, officials said. He was supposed to connect to Flight 297 to head home to Houston, but he missed his first flight out of Ohio. And therefore, he missed the connecting flight.
"Flight 297, the flight which Mr. Patruna allegedly wrote a first-hand account of, originally pushed back from its gate in Atlanta at 4:40 p.m. EST, a full 26 minutes before flight 205 arrived at the gate in Atlanta making this flight connection impossible," according to AirTran.
Neither Petruna nor Hackemack responded to requests from the AJC to speak to them Friday evening.
http://www.ajc.com/business/airtran-flight-297-man-226517.html
AirTran Flight 297: Man who wrote e-mail not on plane, says airline
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It's a little easier to understand why a man who claimed to have thwarted a potential terrorist attack on a plane has not answered repeated requests to tell his story.
He was not on the plane, according to AirTran Airways.
"After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests (legally binding documents) that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways Flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight," AirTran said in a statement, which the AJC was the first to obtain.
An e-mail from a Tedd Petruna, which he told the AJC via a Facebook message Friday was intended only for friends and family, made the rounds online this week after one of those friends apparently forwarded it to others. In a matter of days, Petruna's account appeared in chat rooms, blogs and conspiracy theorists' Web sites.
The AJC was forwarded the e-mail dozens of times this week, as readers saw Petruna's tale and noticed conflicting information between it and earlier news reports of the flight delay Nov. 17.
Many of those who forwarded the message to the AJC added accusatory comments suggesting the paper was participating in a politically correct cover-up. The AJC made several attempts to speak to Petruna about the incident. He has declined throughout the week to respond to repeated e-mail and phone attempts by the AJC to talk to him.
Additionally, interviews between the AJC and people on the plane, airline officials and federal agencies did not corroborate his story of what occurred on the flight.
According to AirTran, shortly after 4:40 p.m. on Nov. 17, Flight 297 bound for Houston taxied toward the runway of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. But before the Boeing 717 made it to the runway, the pilot made the decision to return the plane to the gate. A flight attendant asked a male passenger twice to put away a cell phone or camera.
At the gate, the passenger -- who didn't speak English -- and a companion were asked to leave the plane, which they did without incident, the airline reported.
When it was determined the problem was caused by a language barrier, AirTran and TSA officials allowed the man, and 12 others traveling with him to re-board, and the flight left for Houston a little more than two hours later. Later, officials said the entire incident was the result of a miscommunication.
Nancy Deveikis was seated in seat 29A aboard Flight 297, directly behind an unidentified man who she believes spoke Spanish. Deveikis said the man was looking at pictures on a camera, and did not understand a flight attendant's requests to turn the device off.
Petruna's account of the flight was drastically different. It was forwarded to others by a man named A. Gene Hackemack, who vouched for him as a former NASA colleague. Petruna claimed he witnessed a incident involving Middle Eastern passengers on the flight, and attempted to stop the incident from escalating.
"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,' " Petruna wrote. Continuing, Petruna said 11 men dressed in "full attire" got on the plane together.
Hackemack, when reached by telephone earlier this week at his Texas home, stood by the story, and gave the AJC a home phone number for Petruna.
"Thank God for people like Tedd Petruna," wrote Hackemack in the e-mail he forwarded.
But there was no way Petruna could have seen what he described on Flight 297, AirTran said in a statement. Petruna departed from Akron-Canton, Ohio, on AirTran Flight 205 on Nov. 17, officials said. He was supposed to connect to Flight 297 to head home to Houston, but he missed his first flight out of Ohio. And therefore, he missed the connecting flight.
"Flight 297, the flight which Mr. Patruna allegedly wrote a first-hand account of, originally pushed back from its gate in Atlanta at 4:40 p.m. EST, a full 26 minutes before flight 205 arrived at the gate in Atlanta making this flight connection impossible," according to AirTran.
Neither Petruna nor Hackemack responded to requests from the AJC to speak to them Friday evening.
