United pilot orders Arab-American family off his flight for "safety"

boing
61

Oh that explains why I am such a klutz. :slight_smile:

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If this was about the car seat and not the racism, then the pilot would have said ‘your car seat is unacceptable, it will have to be stowed, or you will not be able to fly’. His demeanor shows that he’s super uncomfortable with what he’s saying, but he has to say something to get them off the plane – so I think it wasn’t his own initiative, but something else, directing him to take action. Another passenger complaint? Flight attendant complaint? Hard to say.

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Absolutely argue it at the gate. As in, if there was an issue, the airline could have brought it up then. And the flight crew could have been specific, instead of vague. A seat that can’t be used can be stowed. Kicking the family off was not, in even the most tiny way, warranted.

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Not just adults, but consumers who paid the air fare to be on that flight.

But it’s all good, because y’know; the powers that be in this instance said so.

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Good point. If the child safety seat was the only issue, as the airline claimed, why not just remove it from the cabin?

I do wonder why the posted videos are so short. Is there something the posters don’t want us to see or hear?

And what is the flight attendant talking about when she says, “they are investigating”?

I think I’ll reserve judgment until more is revealed.

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  • How does “profiling” differ from racism?

Is it when you’re just following orders, as opposed to physically prejudiced?

Is it just a nicer, totally-not-racist word?

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67

They already are, that’s how the autopilot works

68

Not quite. It’s actually a nicer, “totally-not-racist, I swear!” word.

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69

Huh, I’ve made this exact mistake. Ten years or so ago (post-911) I tried to board an airplane with a 2-year-old and a booster seat. The flight crew right away informed me that boosters weren’t allowed, and gate-checked it, and that was that. They certainly didn’t kick my white ass off the plane.

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70

Do you try to dance, because us whiteys can’t do that either! :wink:

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71

Now now, #notallwhitepeople!

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72

Okay. Fair enough… some children and the gay ones…

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73

I’m sticking with my roots.

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75

Yeah it’s about that bad… but I have fun with it.

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Tha’s what matters! You do you! :wink:

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People also need to remember that videos don’t show the whole incident. Regardless of how the situation started cameras aren’t turned on until things start heating up a bit.

It’s very possible this family was already discriminated against by the flight crew and that’s why they became defensive.
It’s also possible that the flight crew had told them they couldn’t have the seat and they got angry about it creating the “safety issue.”

While I don’t work for an airline, I do work in a hospital. If a patient or visitor does something that is a danger to us and needs to be removed from the premises the conversation changes from what has happened or what they were initially mad about, to the unsafe situation or problematic behavior.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the same kind of policy happens at an airline. once an issue is escalated to a “safety problem” that’s all it is. The explaining has already been done, or will be further addressed, but the issue is now safety not the car seat and the pilot addresses it as such.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if the guy is just racist either. Just thought I’d add a fourth possible explanation for the situation.

78

The seat should have been checked–I doubt we will ever have a solid history of what went wrong with that. I don’t know why it wasn’t simply gate-checked once it got on the plane. Once you start arguing with the flight crew while you’re still on the ground you should expect to be tossed off the flight no matter what your skin color.

The involvement of CAIR makes me strongly suspect the airline was in the right here.

79

Yep. We can never know, because there was probably like 100 witnesses and it happened in a public place. Clearly, these scary MOOOOOSSSLIMS planned to be humiliated in public, with their family, just for the LOLZ…

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Did you watch the video, and read the article, and see the airlines claim about the reason?

Considering the video, is it even remotely plausible that that explanation is true, and they are asking them all to leave rather than using whatever policies they normally use for the all-too-common occurrence of people taking babies on airplanes?

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