Post by Retrovision on Aug 30, 2007 4:54:47 GMT -8
Passenger concerns over Arabic speakers delay flight overnight
By Pauline Repard and Debbi Farr Baker
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
August 30, 2007
SAN DIEGO – An American Airlines flight from Lindbergh Field to Chicago was delayed overnight Tuesday because of a passenger's fright over some Arabic-speaking men on board.
The jetliner returned to the gate after a woman with one or two children wanted off Flight 590, an airline spokesman said.
San Diego Harbor Police interviewed the woman, four of six Middle Eastern men traveling together, and the flight crew. No arrests were made and the incident is not being treated as a crime, an airport official said.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport but was rescheduled for yesterday at 10:15 a.m. after a customer dispute started at the gate and continued onto the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.
A woman expressed concerns to the flight crew, before boarding, that six men were speaking a foreign language and exhibiting “strange behavior,” said Irene McCormack, spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified Port District, which operates Lindbergh Field.
The passenger continued telling the crew her concerns, within earshot of the men, after the jet taxied from the gate, McCormack said yesterday. She said the pilot decided to return to the gate and Harbor Police were called.
An Associated Press report said six Iraqi passengers had been training Marines at Camp Pendleton and worked for Defense Training Systems, a unit of International Logistics Services Corp. of Anchorage, Alaska.
“They did nothing wrong,” said R. David Stephens, the company's chief executive officer. A company news release called it “an unfortunate situation for all flight passengers.”
The jet left the gate at 11:14 p.m. and returned at 11:26 p.m. Airline spokesman Wagner said the airport's 11:30 p.m. curfew on departures prevented the plane from taking off. McCormack said the plane could have departed but the airline would have faced a fine for doing so.
One passenger, Christine Zugay of Chicago, said that after the plane began to taxi, the pilot used an intercom to say there was a problem onboard that needed to be taken care of, and that they were returning to the gate. A few minutes later, the pilot said the flight would have to be rescheduled because of the curfew.
Zugay said that she did not see or hear any altercation on the plane, but that disembarking passengers were talking about a woman and a child who had left the flight.
Wagner said that 126 passengers had booked the flight and that everyone had to disembark. Most of the Iraqi men boarded the rescheduled flight yesterday, while one may have taken an earlier flight, McCormack said.
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. • A Copley San Diego Newspaper Site
By Pauline Repard and Debbi Farr Baker
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
August 30, 2007
SAN DIEGO – An American Airlines flight from Lindbergh Field to Chicago was delayed overnight Tuesday because of a passenger's fright over some Arabic-speaking men on board.
The jetliner returned to the gate after a woman with one or two children wanted off Flight 590, an airline spokesman said.
San Diego Harbor Police interviewed the woman, four of six Middle Eastern men traveling together, and the flight crew. No arrests were made and the incident is not being treated as a crime, an airport official said.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport but was rescheduled for yesterday at 10:15 a.m. after a customer dispute started at the gate and continued onto the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.
A woman expressed concerns to the flight crew, before boarding, that six men were speaking a foreign language and exhibiting “strange behavior,” said Irene McCormack, spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified Port District, which operates Lindbergh Field.
The passenger continued telling the crew her concerns, within earshot of the men, after the jet taxied from the gate, McCormack said yesterday. She said the pilot decided to return to the gate and Harbor Police were called.
An Associated Press report said six Iraqi passengers had been training Marines at Camp Pendleton and worked for Defense Training Systems, a unit of International Logistics Services Corp. of Anchorage, Alaska.
“They did nothing wrong,” said R. David Stephens, the company's chief executive officer. A company news release called it “an unfortunate situation for all flight passengers.”
The jet left the gate at 11:14 p.m. and returned at 11:26 p.m. Airline spokesman Wagner said the airport's 11:30 p.m. curfew on departures prevented the plane from taking off. McCormack said the plane could have departed but the airline would have faced a fine for doing so.
One passenger, Christine Zugay of Chicago, said that after the plane began to taxi, the pilot used an intercom to say there was a problem onboard that needed to be taken care of, and that they were returning to the gate. A few minutes later, the pilot said the flight would have to be rescheduled because of the curfew.
Zugay said that she did not see or hear any altercation on the plane, but that disembarking passengers were talking about a woman and a child who had left the flight.
Wagner said that 126 passengers had booked the flight and that everyone had to disembark. Most of the Iraqi men boarded the rescheduled flight yesterday, while one may have taken an earlier flight, McCormack said.
© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. • A Copley San Diego Newspaper Site
