What Mainframe says makes absolute sense.
It seems people are having a go at the crew for playing it safe!
I would venture to say people might have felt differently about it if they were passengers on the plane!
A lot of people are scared to say this so I will:
Yes, there is quite a bit of non-arab terrorism in the world. But the fact is:
The VAST majority of modern day terrorists are arabs.
(Note: I did not say all arabs, as most are decent people like you and me)
Steamchicken mentions terrorism such as:
Baltic Exchange...
Canary Wharf...
Warrington...
Omagh...
Sundry incidents in the Basque country..
but fails to mention the THOUSANDS of israelis (including arabs) killed every year, week after week by palestinians, not to mention, the thousands killed in Sept 11,(also including many arabs) or the hundreds of christians killed every year in Pakistan by arab terrorist attacks. (Also don't forget the various other airline terroist attacks by arabs)
What is so "disgraceful" of being suspicious of these men because of their ethnicity? If the situation was reversed and Australians were known as terrorists, I may be annoyed by it, but would understand people being suspicious of me, if I flew on a foreign airline.