After 9/11 you'd think that those, shall we say, 'of Middle East appearance' would go out of their way to be polite, quiet and unassuming on airline flights to avoid anyone being unpleasant towards them.
But regrettably that doesn't always seem to be the case. I was on a flight 2 months after 9/11 which was delayed by a late passenger - a man 'of Middle East appearance'. He had to be told twice to fasten his seatbelt, was rude to the No 1 and had a window seat in Row 2. Despite the usual PA announcement, he then proceeded to make a cellphone call whilst the aircraft was taxiing; a passenger sitting nearby called the No 1 who gave him a very positive brief about the use of cellphones in aircraft. The glances exchanged between other passengers made it pretty obvious that he'd raised considerable worry amongst them...what a shame the captain hadn't simply called security, stopped and booted him off. Not really feasible, I guess, unless there were rather more obvious concerns for the safety of that particular flight - and you're taxiing for a tight CTOT!!
But the airline did show some weak security - whilst the cabin crew were feeding the passengers, the flight deck door was open and any passenger going to the forward lavatory could easily have entered the 2-person flight deck without being stopped by the cabin crew....
[ 30 December 2001: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>