Imams' lawsuit names U.S. Airways captain
The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, claims US Airways' alleged discriminatory actions were based on the imams' "perceived race, religion, color, ethnicity, alienage, ancestry, and/or national origin."
The suit names Capt. John Howard Woods as a defendant. "At all times relevant to the events mentioned herein, Capt. Wood was an agent and/or employee of U.S. Airways and was acting within the scope of his employment," the lawsuit said. "Upon information and belief, Capt. Wood mad the decision to have Plaintiffs removed from Flight 300."
The imams were removed from the plane after unnamed passengers who saw two of them praying at the gate prior to boarding complained that they were behaving suspiciously, the suit alleges. The suit lists flight attendants, desk agents and passengers as "John Doe" co-defendants. Woods was the only named co-defendant listed.
The suit alleges that the plaintiffs, who were trying to return to Phoenix after a national meeting of clerics, were "denied equal treatment in a place of public accommodation, and falsely arrested and detained by law enforcement officers."
In January, Eagan-Minn.-based Northwest Airlines issued a public apology to a group of 40 U.S. Muslim pilgrims barred from boarding a Michigan-bound flight in Germany. The Muslims were returning to the United States after their pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Charlie Lunan
3/13/2007
A U.S. Airways Captain was named as a co-defendant in a civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday by six Islamic clerics removed from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last November.3/13/2007
The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, claims US Airways' alleged discriminatory actions were based on the imams' "perceived race, religion, color, ethnicity, alienage, ancestry, and/or national origin."
The suit names Capt. John Howard Woods as a defendant. "At all times relevant to the events mentioned herein, Capt. Wood was an agent and/or employee of U.S. Airways and was acting within the scope of his employment," the lawsuit said. "Upon information and belief, Capt. Wood mad the decision to have Plaintiffs removed from Flight 300."
The imams were removed from the plane after unnamed passengers who saw two of them praying at the gate prior to boarding complained that they were behaving suspiciously, the suit alleges. The suit lists flight attendants, desk agents and passengers as "John Doe" co-defendants. Woods was the only named co-defendant listed.
The suit alleges that the plaintiffs, who were trying to return to Phoenix after a national meeting of clerics, were "denied equal treatment in a place of public accommodation, and falsely arrested and detained by law enforcement officers."
In January, Eagan-Minn.-based Northwest Airlines issued a public apology to a group of 40 U.S. Muslim pilgrims barred from boarding a Michigan-bound flight in Germany. The Muslims were returning to the United States after their pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
