Update: Dutch release all 12 passengers from diverted flight
posted at 2:41 pm on August 24, 2006 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
As expected, another false alarm. With a twist:
“I thought that the men were celebrating a stag party,” Simon Balakrishwan, a 43-year-old passenger from India, told the NRC Handelsblad daily.
“After the plane took off a mobile phone rang and the men started cheering,” he said. “They kept exchanging plastic bags and looking in them and laughing. Irritating passengers.”
Indian junior foreign minister Anand Sharma told reporters all 12 were born in Mumbai.
An Indian Foreign Ministry official said all were of Indian origin, although some apparently held other passports. Dutch authorities granted consular access to the Indian nationals.
Does “stag party” have a different meaning in Indian culture? What the hell would plastic bags and cell phones have to do with it? Were they calling a sex line and hyperventilating?
Mary K was all over it. She’s doing a little hyperventilating herself over Survivor’s attempt to decide who the master race is, which, while abhorrent as national policy, should make for some seriously awesome TV.
First person to leave a comment about MK and hyperventilation is banned on grounds of obviousness.
Update: Theodore Dalrymple on the Manchester incident:
Astonishingly, the passengers got their way: the two men had to get off the flight. Presumably, they flew on the next flight, but one can easily imagine their feelings. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the experience would make them less rather than more receptive to the siren song of extremism. They are not likely to use their experience to reflect deeply upon surveys such as the one that found that 30 percent of British Muslims believe British Jews “legitimate targets,” or another that found that 7 percent of British Muslims (100,000 people, if the results were representative) believe that suicide bombing in Britain is justifiable. More likely, the young men will use the experience to stoke the fires of resentment, the embers of which rarely if ever fully are extinguished in any man’s breast, even in the best of circumstances.
After all, no one so lacks compassion that he fails to pity himself, and the two young men removed from the flight have some reason for self-pity. Far lesser things have maddened men. Ill-treated, they will blame the passengers for it, not the men who created the atmosphere that prompts such ill-treatment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
From what I can tell, a “baraat” is the closest thing Indian culture has to a stag party. No disrespect intended, but it doesn’t quite cut it.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on August 24, 2006 at 2:52 PM
What a surprise. But hey, the message was sent out there anyhow, so not all is lost.
THeDRiFTeR on August 24, 2006 at 2:55 PM
Which message? That terrorists sometimes try to blow up planes?
Allahpundit on August 24, 2006 at 2:59 PM
That brown people shouldn’t fly, it upsets the whites.
THeDRiFTeR on August 24, 2006 at 3:21 PM
“Brown people”? Nothing more specific than that, eh?
The cell phones had nothing to do with it either.
Allahpundit on August 24, 2006 at 3:24 PM
Allahpundit, they were all released. If there was something to this, they’d have been charged. They weren’t, like the two “lads” in Spain the other day. Whites get frightened, everyone else suffers. You fine with that? Remember, this was a flight out of Amsterdam.
THeDRiFTeR on August 24, 2006 at 3:34 PM
I genuinely don’t take your point here, and I don’t know why you insist on making it “whites against browns.” No black people have been involved in any of these false alarms. The Manchester flight involved two guys of unspecified Middle Eastern ethnicity (probably Iranian, since they were speaking Urdu), and this one involved 12 Indian guys, who people probably mistook for Pakistani. It’s a little more specific than “brown,” don’t you think?
Also, if it whites against the world, how come that flight was diverted to Boston last week? The lady who pissed in the aisle was as white as the driven snow.
I also began this post by saying it was a false alarm. Not sure why you think I’m questioning whether something was going on or not.
Allahpundit on August 24, 2006 at 3:39 PM
You really believe that crap??
Rick on August 24, 2006 at 3:44 PM
I’m not, and I don’t see how you can infer that I was based on my sarcasm.
I specifically remember seeing a photo that I assumed you linked to, although I could be wrong, maybe it was someone elses link. They were both men of color, a fact that I suspect played a large role in their misfortune. I don’t think it really has to be much more “specific”.
“After the plane took off a mobile phone rang and the men started cheering,” he said. “They kept exchanging plastic bags and looking in them and laughing. Irritating passengers.”
Damn, them Indian fellahs there are irritating me. Lets have the captain call in the F16s.
Tell me honestly. How would you feel to be hauled off an aircraft at gunpoint, as was the case in Spain, because you’ve irritated someone, or because someone has felt threatened? These guys were, as everyone else, screened before boarding the plane. One of their phones rang. They laughed, and looked into plastic bags. I don’t know, but somehow, if they’d all been whites, speaking dutch, I hardly think it would have made the papers.
When someone elses rights are violated, or have had their dignity stripped from them for their color, language or religion, then we’ve all been had. This is a basic principle in a civil rights society. But of course, you know this. Don’t you?
THeDRiFTeR on August 24, 2006 at 3:50 PM
Racial profiling to prevent another terrorist attack is worth the discomfort.
Kramer on August 24, 2006 at 3:53 PM
Mr. THeDRiFTeR
So-it’s better to be dead, blown into bits by nihilistic jihadi worriors as opposed to risking offending someone’s feelings?
mmmmmmmmmokay
WriterMom on August 24, 2006 at 4:02 PM
Make that warriors.
WriterMom on August 24, 2006 at 4:02 PM
In these times of PC thinking we must not infringe on the rights of terrorists.
They have feelings too.
Kramer on August 24, 2006 at 4:07 PM
Drifter, I don’t care what the hell race, religion, etc. they are — If I’m on a plane with my family, and a group of people start acting strange, after everybody’s been instructed (about electronic devices, etc.) — their “civil liberties” go down the toilet in my book. These are dangerous times Drifter — don’t tell me you think this is just a white/Republican fear mongering plot??
Also, those two guys you mentioned understand the current climate, and didn’t blame anyone for their terrible experience. It’s about damn time people start getting pissed off at those that have actually created this climate of fear instead of at those that are trying to protect us from them.
Rick on August 24, 2006 at 4:07 PM
It’s an easier thing to scream “RACISM!!!” at Whitey than it is to tackle the very real, very difficult challenges that Western society faces for having committed the crimes of being Western and white.
Ain’t it, drifter? Just ignore anyone darker than Paris Hilton, regardless of what they’re doing. We can’t risk offending anyone.
Pablo on August 24, 2006 at 4:14 PM
Who said anything about plots? I said:
I think events of the past couple days bears that assessment out, in Europe and everywhere else.
I would love to see bin Laden in the dock, or as the president said, “dead or alive”, but apprehended. Unfortunately, he’s in Afghanistan and our efforts are elsewhere.
THeDRiFTeR on August 24, 2006 at 4:16 PM
Let’s offend everyone!!
We’ll make a day of it.
We should start off with physical traits: fatty, chunky, tiny, zit face, etc. .
Once we’re comfortable with those we can move on.
Kramer on August 24, 2006 at 4:19 PM
Racial profiling isn’t cost effective. Behavioral profiling is what we need. It includes, travel history, payment methods, frequency of visits to Pakistan and Greater Middle East and specific European cities like Milan and Hamburg when in conjunction with specific foreign destinations, along with a whole slew of other behaviors, both biological, body langauge and heart rate, and interpersonal, no eye contact, mumbled answers, incomplete answers.
The people on the flight were responding rationally to behavioral indicators, ethnic precidents, and destination (Mumbai, sight of a massive train bombing in recent weeks).
There is nothing inherently racist about their objections. When groups of white Dutch people start getting arrested for plotting to blow planes out of the sky or bomb public transport Dutch speaking “crackers” will come under the same suspicions when evidencing corollary behaviors to jihadi bombers and jihadi wannabees who got caught before the fact.
We’ve not been had at all. It’s called inconvenience and everyone who flies today suffers it, but some who fly today suffer more than others. I guess this makes them victims, which in the minds of some makes them Holy Martyrs in the War Against Terror Prevention Methods and Techniques That We Personally Disagree With, but that isn’t a fight I’m interested in joining. It seems a bit cartoonish if you ask me. Especially when there are genuine threats to the safety and lives of civilians. Civilians being the prime strategic targets of Jihadi terrorists.
The Apologist on August 24, 2006 at 4:19 PM
And Bin Laden isn’t in Afghanistan he’s in Pakistan.
The Apologist on August 24, 2006 at 4:21 PM
So in other words, since we can’t get him right now, let’s make it hard for those that are trying to watch out for us (instead of kill us)??
Also, I don’t think OBL is in Afghanistan right now — the little coward ran into Pakistan (most likely).
Rick on August 24, 2006 at 4:25 PM
More than that our efforts are at preventing terror through defensive and offensive techniques, not capturing isolated and ineffective symbols of 9-11. It’s not a criminal manhunt, it’s a war. You send resources where they will do the most good. Pyrrhic victories have a tendency to catch buildings and people on fire.
The Apologist on August 24, 2006 at 4:25 PM
Mr. Drifter, with all due respect…I’m a little irritated and annoyed by having to deal with the threat of terrorism. Maybe the Islamofascists owe me an apology.
Sorry, but given the current climate, anyone of middle eastern, arab, or middle asian background – including Pakistanis and Indians – should be pretty much aware that they need to watch their behavior on planes. Don’t blame white racists…blame the idiot jihadis for screwing an entire hemisphere’s people to higher scrutiny by the West.
tickleddragon on August 24, 2006 at 4:27 PM
Everyone has to watch their behavior in and around planes. I haven’t been on a flight yet where it was okay to use my cell phone after take off. Since it was the marshals who became suspicious, and their entire job is to be trained and watchful of suspicious activity, I think this was a good call.
Drifter, have you been treated poorly due to the color of your skin? Or are you just a guilty racist whitey trying to make up for the color of your skin? You proved yesterday with your link to the American taliban that not all jihadist ar “brown” and you weren’t challenged on that fact. You’re way off on this one-this is the world we live in. Get used to it.
NTWR on August 24, 2006 at 4:50 PM
And also, blame the majority of muslims, who either remain unwilling to condemn unequivocally the terrorism that is committed in the name of their religion.
Silence = assent.
thirteen28 on August 24, 2006 at 5:08 PM
I completely concur, Thirteen28. I forgot to mention the moderate muslims who aren’t speaking out.
tickleddragon on August 24, 2006 at 5:24 PM
Ahh, you all need to understand the nuanced humor of the jihadis. Most of the time, when they do something strange and suspicion provoking, it’s just a joke.
NTWR on August 24, 2006 at 5:57 PM
I think it’s a probe. There are too many Muslims flying around doing things to make themselves look guilty and then claiming they were just “having fun”. That was, if you recall the comment of the two “Asian Muslims” that were just thrown off another flight the other day. This is the classic example of the “BOY WHO CRIED WOLF”, syndrome. The exception being that they desire these false alarms, with which they hope to dull the quick instincts of flight attendants and passengers who would react if someone tries to, say for instance, light their shoes on fire.
Soothsayer on August 24, 2006 at 6:51 PM
First, on a light note, lest I forget :)
Wouldn’t that be you, Mr. Allah, by having posted about it?
And now, assuming the wrath of Allah is not upon me yet, to the serious discussion/s.
I’ve held platinum travel status for years, am white and traveled much before and after 9/11/01. Not once, not even remotely, did it occur to me, nor did I see anyone explode joyously at a cell phone call, after the announcement was made to not use them, and then exchange plastic bags and create other commotions. What on Earth does that have to do with being white and Duch-speaking anyway? Just follow the flight protocol and no one cares if you’re read, brown, white or green.
Bin Laden is “in the dock”, if you wish to use this expression. He’s really in a cave since Dec. of 2001.
THeDRiFTeR, to your accusations about ‘hunting’ bin Laden ‘dead or alive’, you will have a chance to see Mr. Clinton, Sandy Berger and Ms. Albright being filleted during the ABC 2-nights docudrama about Sept. 11, 2001, on the nights of Sept. 10 and 11. It’s based on commission findings, a commission the Left bows to.
For the first time much of the truth about the dereliction of the Clinton Admin. will be aired. You will find out how bin Laden was really offered on a platinum platter to a President who was too busy defending himself from floozy-gate.
You will also find out why Mr. Berger was busy hiding 9/11 documents in his pants and how weak the CIA had become, how the agents were called out of Afghanistan, even knowing where/how to get bin Laden.
“Are there any real men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards?” will be a phrase we’ll all be very intimate with after 9/11/06. We’ll hear it over and over and over. Most interesting will be who said it.
Yes, the Bush Admin. didn’t know or do everything either but we’ve heard that story a million times already, though it will not hurt to see it repeated.
And, lastly, I’m for the Israeli airport security system. All means and tests, especially interrogations and psychological evaluations are valid.
Entelechy on August 24, 2006 at 7:13 PM
I rarely fly, so I am forced to ask…
Was this sort of behavior allowed before 9/11, and why would anyone get upset by passengers reacting to such an outbreak of insanity? I personally believe that those claiming racism, or relying on political correctness in these very dangerous times, are Stuck On Stupid.
DannoJyd on August 24, 2006 at 7:53 PM
Comment pages: