zog
14th Sep 2002, 16:12
British Asians thrown off flight
Charter pilot bars men after passengers cite terrorism fears
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Saturday September 14, 2002
The Guardian
Four British Asian passengers were turned away by the pilot of a charter flight from Gerona in north-eastern Spain to Luton on Thursday because other passengers feared they were terrorists and refused to travel with them.
The four neatly-dressed, short-haired young men, who belong to Luton's Indian community according to El Pais newspaper, were forced to travel overland to Barcelona to catch a different flight 10 hours later.
Twenty-four passengers on the Thursday morning My Travel MYT650 charter flight told the captain they would refuse to travel with the men because they had been behaving suspiciously, a spokeswoman for the Manchester-based airline explained.
Rather than invite the 24 passengers to catch another plane, the captain chose to bar the four men, whose family names were given as Bhatti, Mahi, Thind and Badihan, from entering the aircraft. My Travel yesterday backed its pilot, saying he "took the correct decision".
They were discovered by El Pais' Gerona correspondent, sitting despondently in the airport cafe and complaining at "the intolerable racism" they had been subjected to.
Ground staff at the airport originally refused to tell them why they had been excluded from the flight, even though police had waved them through after twice scanning their bags.
"They were indignant but resigned to their fate," Gerard Bague, El Pais' Gerona reporter, said yesterday. The men, who had stayed for a few days at an apartment in the nearby Costa Brava resort of Blanes, told him they were convinced they had been the victims of straightforward racism.
"They were British citizens with British passports," said Mike Hall, who sold them their tickets at Gerona airport's Flightline travel agency office and then helped rearrange their trip. "I told them that, because of September 11, people must have been nervous.
"They said the police had checked them and searched them and there were no guns or knives on them.
"I lent one of them my phone because he said his parents were elderly and would worry about him."
Mr Hall described the group of men, who were only carrying hand baggage, as "quiet" and said he had not seen them behaving unusually.
"It was a difficult decision to make. We had 24 people who refused to fly," the spokeswoman for My Travel said.
In a statement the airline said: "The security and safety of all our customers is our paramount concern. Any customers acting in an unusual fashion are likely to be subject to increased security and monitoring. The captain decided that in order for the flight to depart without delay or incident, he would make alternative travel arrangements for the group of four."
The men were eventually put in a taxi to Barcelona and flown home by EasyJet, arriving 10 hours late at Luton. My Travel had not yet offered them compensation yesterday, though a spokeswoman did not rule that out.
"We would welcome further discussion with them. We do offer our apologies," she said.
And this is a quote from a hostie
I've just returned from a night LPA on the above 757 nto LGW.
I can not believe the condition of this aircraft.
The aircraft stinks of urine.. Paxs filled out complaint forms because the smell was so strong.
The entire rear galley was redundant as no ovens were available. No water , hot or cold was available.
Cold meals were offered but not what paxs ordered or wanted. The Veg option consisted of a piece of lettuce, half a tomato and a piece of cucumber cut in two. No dressing.
This veg option remained the same for breakfast! ! Lettuce for breakfast ! !
We started the service with headsets. We found a mixture of old and new headsets, so some paxs had telephone vouchers and some did not. The latter paxs did not take it lightly that they did not receive a phone voucher.
We then realized that the main movie O/B was missing so all we had to show 233 adults was a childrens cartoon ! oh a happy load of paxs...NOT !
The forward galley had two bev..makers working however one popped its circuit breaker leaving us withone slow brewer for 233 paxs. I cancelled tea/coffee as we would have been there until now.
What can we do in these circumstances?
This aircraft was swapped from a Man..flight aprox 10 days ago and has been flying around like this ever since in LGW.
The only standard service I could operate was drinks otherwise it was apology after apology.
We can't seem to offer our paxs a service as simple as a headset without been given the incorrect product thus causing problems for the frontline crew straight away.
What is happening ?
Holiday plus paxs are collecting their tickets at the airport and realizing that their drinks coupons have not been issued.
How can it all go so wrong?
Guess who gets an ear full?
Thats it..Had to get that off my chest before I go to bed. I sleep in hope that tomorrow is a better day !
Night.
Charter pilot bars men after passengers cite terrorism fears
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Saturday September 14, 2002
The Guardian
Four British Asian passengers were turned away by the pilot of a charter flight from Gerona in north-eastern Spain to Luton on Thursday because other passengers feared they were terrorists and refused to travel with them.
The four neatly-dressed, short-haired young men, who belong to Luton's Indian community according to El Pais newspaper, were forced to travel overland to Barcelona to catch a different flight 10 hours later.
Twenty-four passengers on the Thursday morning My Travel MYT650 charter flight told the captain they would refuse to travel with the men because they had been behaving suspiciously, a spokeswoman for the Manchester-based airline explained.
Rather than invite the 24 passengers to catch another plane, the captain chose to bar the four men, whose family names were given as Bhatti, Mahi, Thind and Badihan, from entering the aircraft. My Travel yesterday backed its pilot, saying he "took the correct decision".
They were discovered by El Pais' Gerona correspondent, sitting despondently in the airport cafe and complaining at "the intolerable racism" they had been subjected to.
Ground staff at the airport originally refused to tell them why they had been excluded from the flight, even though police had waved them through after twice scanning their bags.
"They were indignant but resigned to their fate," Gerard Bague, El Pais' Gerona reporter, said yesterday. The men, who had stayed for a few days at an apartment in the nearby Costa Brava resort of Blanes, told him they were convinced they had been the victims of straightforward racism.
"They were British citizens with British passports," said Mike Hall, who sold them their tickets at Gerona airport's Flightline travel agency office and then helped rearrange their trip. "I told them that, because of September 11, people must have been nervous.
"They said the police had checked them and searched them and there were no guns or knives on them.
"I lent one of them my phone because he said his parents were elderly and would worry about him."
Mr Hall described the group of men, who were only carrying hand baggage, as "quiet" and said he had not seen them behaving unusually.
"It was a difficult decision to make. We had 24 people who refused to fly," the spokeswoman for My Travel said.
In a statement the airline said: "The security and safety of all our customers is our paramount concern. Any customers acting in an unusual fashion are likely to be subject to increased security and monitoring. The captain decided that in order for the flight to depart without delay or incident, he would make alternative travel arrangements for the group of four."
The men were eventually put in a taxi to Barcelona and flown home by EasyJet, arriving 10 hours late at Luton. My Travel had not yet offered them compensation yesterday, though a spokeswoman did not rule that out.
"We would welcome further discussion with them. We do offer our apologies," she said.
And this is a quote from a hostie
I've just returned from a night LPA on the above 757 nto LGW.
I can not believe the condition of this aircraft.
The aircraft stinks of urine.. Paxs filled out complaint forms because the smell was so strong.
The entire rear galley was redundant as no ovens were available. No water , hot or cold was available.
Cold meals were offered but not what paxs ordered or wanted. The Veg option consisted of a piece of lettuce, half a tomato and a piece of cucumber cut in two. No dressing.
This veg option remained the same for breakfast! ! Lettuce for breakfast ! !
We started the service with headsets. We found a mixture of old and new headsets, so some paxs had telephone vouchers and some did not. The latter paxs did not take it lightly that they did not receive a phone voucher.
We then realized that the main movie O/B was missing so all we had to show 233 adults was a childrens cartoon ! oh a happy load of paxs...NOT !
The forward galley had two bev..makers working however one popped its circuit breaker leaving us withone slow brewer for 233 paxs. I cancelled tea/coffee as we would have been there until now.
What can we do in these circumstances?
This aircraft was swapped from a Man..flight aprox 10 days ago and has been flying around like this ever since in LGW.
The only standard service I could operate was drinks otherwise it was apology after apology.
We can't seem to offer our paxs a service as simple as a headset without been given the incorrect product thus causing problems for the frontline crew straight away.
What is happening ?
Holiday plus paxs are collecting their tickets at the airport and realizing that their drinks coupons have not been issued.
How can it all go so wrong?
Guess who gets an ear full?
Thats it..Had to get that off my chest before I go to bed. I sleep in hope that tomorrow is a better day !
Night.