Airline's Actions Inexcusable

Since 2001, the Bush administration has been waging a campaign of fear in this country in an effort to keep Republicans in power. It didn't work for that purpose, but it does have some Americans and American businesses acting in stupid ways. Take for instance, this incident at Airtran Airways.

Two brothers, Atif Irfan (an attorney) and Kashif Irfan (an anesthesiologist), their wives, a sister and their three young children were traveling from Washington (D.C.) to Orlando for a vacation. As they boarded their Airtran Airways flight, one of the wives asked another family member where the safest place to sit was on the plane. That's a perfectly reasonable question, and one I've discussed with my family while choosing a seat.

But evidently, this is a discussion you can have only if you're not, or don't look Arabic. A fellow passenger overheard the innocent conversation, jumped to the wrong conclusion and reported their fears to the flight attendant. The flight attendant reported it to the pilot, who in turn reported it to air marshalls who were on board. I'm sure the story got worse every time it was retold.

The families were finally removed from the flight, along with another passenger with whom they had a short conversation -- Abdul Aziz ( a Library of Congress attorney). Even though they were unfairly accused, the family cooperated, left the plane and answered questions put to them by the FBI. They were quickly cleared by the FBI.

But when they tried to rebook for another flight with Airtran, they were refused. The FBI spoke to the airline on their behalf and assured the airline they had been cleared and were not dangerous in any way. Unbelieveably, the airline still refused to rebook them!

Let me make that clear. This family had passed thru security and been searched like everyone else, and then went thru the extra step of being questioned and cleared by the FBI, and the airline still would not honor the tickets they had sold them and let them fly. The FBI had to finally book them on a different (unnamed) airline so they could complete their trip.

It was bad enough that they were removed from the plane in the first place, but it is inexcusable for the airline to refuse to rebook them after the FBI cleared them. Mr. Aziz says he is considering a lawsuit against the airline. I don't blame him. If it was me, I'd be looking for the greediest attorney I could find.