Man, Son Deplaned for Watching 9/11 Video

[rottenray]

This debate has been raging on another forum and I'd like to see the PPRuNe perspective.

Article: Man, son yanked off airliner (http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/07/22/14796031.html)

[Di_Vosh]

Possible overreaction, but I guess it comes into the category of making jokes about concealed bombs in your bags, etc, at security.

With the current state of airline travel today, you shouldn't be doing things that make other people nervous.

My 2c

DIVOSH!

[Northbeach]

Unfortunately, the article leaves most questions unanswered. Similar to an article about water service being interrupted to a hotel, when a massive subterranean sink hole swallowed portions of several city blocks destroying the city’s underground utilities in the area. But that is journalism today; useless most of the time.
Unfortunately common sense seems to be less common today. I would not travel in Japan with a documentary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki playing on my laptop, nor would I walk around the inner cities of the U.S. wearing a white sheet, walk the streets of Jerusalem with a SS helmet or try to order a pork sandwich in Jeddah. To do so is to invite trouble-it is dumb.
So what were they thinking? Did they accomplish what they set out to accomplish-perhaps some notoriety?

[Diplome]

Northbeach:

Excellent comment.

[radeng]

Take this a bit further. Suppose you had downloaded the AAIB monthly Bulleting onto your lap top. Pictures of crashed aircraft, failed components - (there was one a couple of years back of prop hub less blades on a aircraft that emergency landed in a field after the prop cam apart) and reports of other happenings. Would this get you offloaded? Would reading a book on air accidents, or railway accidents? Or a medical tome with explicit diagrams? Or (as I have done on a flight to see a customer), a book on Electronic Warfare techniques All of these could offend or cause worry to someone. But it gets very restrictive to start stopping such activities just because one is on an aeroplane.

[sprocky_ger]

With the current state of airline travel today, you shouldn't be doing things that make other people nervous.
Agreed.

@Radeng:
Go a bit further:
1. Beware of speaking arabic languages.
2. Don't dress like people from the Middle East.
3. Don't roll out your carpet in front of the boarding desk and start praying.

In the name of safety and security they'll take more and more of our freedom.

If I had seen that boy I probably would have thought: "Hey, that's great. This boy cares about some darkest hours in recent history!"

[Northbeach]

Radeng – north of Lyneham,

Any text, without context, is a pretext.

Your post is well written and your point well made. The problem with the original news article is that there is no context; we really know virtually nothing about the “event”.

For example, if you are a uniformed aircrew on the aircraft being repositioned and you took out a report including pictures of a prop hub less blades or some other accident report I would not be concerned for the safety of the flight. I might question the wisdom of doing such work in the presence of paying passengers some of whom probably suffer some anxiety about flying. But in context such behavior would not cause me to be suspicious.
But many people would agree that there is a definite line (completely subjective) between the behavior you described and that of publically watching the 9-11 suicide attacks in the presence of airplane passengers who are travelling on an airplane. To “roll those tapes” in front of a plane load of passengers is going to cause somebody to object. In my opinion such behavior is to intentionally wave the red flag in front of the bull or to pull the tiger’s tail-you are asking for trouble. Such an antagonist is either looking for trouble or just acting foolishly.

Further, as an airline Captain, this is exactly the kind of stuff that I have to deal with at work trying to sort out the various requests and concerns that are brought my way.

[rottenray]

Northbeach writes:
For example, if you are a uniformed aircrew on the aircraft being repositioned and you took out a report including pictures of a prop hub less blades or some other accident report I would not be concerned for the safety of the flight. I might question the wisdom of doing such work in the presence of paying passengers some of whom probably suffer some anxiety about flying. But in context such behavior would not cause me to be suspicious.I've been trying to find a bit more information on this event but have had no luck.

I think it would be very interesting to learn the experience level of the FA who handled the situation in the cabin as well as that of the captain. Perhaps it would add a different perspective.


Cheers!