Blue Crab Boulevard

Suspicion

Suspicion: the act or an instance of suspecting something wrong without proof or on slight evidence : MISTRUST b : a state of mental uneasiness and uncertainty : DOUBT. (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

British passengers on a charter flight from Malaga to Manchester refused to allow the aircraft to take off after becoming suspicious of two men on the flight.

British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny – refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.

The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.

Passengers told cabin crew they feared for their safety and demanded police action. Some stormed off the Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 minutes before it was due to leave the Costa del Sol at 3am. Others waiting for Flight ZB 613 in the departure lounge refused to board it.

The incident fuels the row over airport security following the arrest of more than 20 people allegedly planning the suicide-bombing of transatlantic jets from the UK to America. It comes amid growing demands for passenger-profiling and selective security checks.

It also raised fears that more travellers will take the law into their own hands – effectively conducting their own 'passenger profiles'.

The passenger revolt came as Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary was accused of using the terror crisis to make money. Government sources say he boasted to an official at the Transport Department: "Every time I appear on TV, I get a spike in sales."

The Tories said the Government's failure to reassure travellers had led the Malaga passengers to 'behave irrationally' and 'hand a victory to terrorists'.

Websites used by pilots and cabin crew were yesterday reporting further incidents. In one, two British women with young children on another flight from Spain complained about flying with a bearded Muslim even though he had been security-checked twice before boarding.

The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her.

Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches. (emphasis added)

Later in the article comes the, quite frankly, stupid comment from a British Tory politician:

Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said last night: "This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally.

"For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense."

The men may or may not have been unfortunate, but the passengers appear to have keyed off their behavior. They were dressed in what sounds like a completely inappropriate manner – and that is something police officers are trained to look for specifically. (A long overcoat on a hot day is out of place – and a good place to hide a shotgun, for example). So, if there is fault to be found here, who should it be pointed at? The passengers who were worried or the men who were acting in a manner sure to raise suspicions?

Not to sound paranoid (which I am quite sure some commenters will say anyway), but if you were going to test security and responses, how would you go about it? Would you send some people on dry runs to see what triggers response or alarm? Would you test various things to see what you could get away with? If you were a careful planner you would.

World news | Gaius August 19, 2006

By David Paulin, August 19, 2006 @ 9:48 pm

The passenger revolt was understandable, but not merely because of the inappropriate clothing and â€œprofileâ€ of the two men. As always, context is everything. In Britain, opinion polls have consistently shown that many Muslim residents have been lukewarm about unequivocally condemning terrorist attacks and identifying wholeheartedly with the British state and its values.

To suggest the incident is contrary to British values and thus a victory for terrorists ignores reality; and that is that there is now an obvious clash between London and â€œLondonistan.â€ That clash has as much to do with the fear of Muslim terrorism as with the refusal of many residents of Londonistan to divorce themselves from the values, culture, and conspiracy theories that motivate terrorists.
By Leary, August 20, 2006 @ 7:13 am

O’Leary. Apparently they are; Irish name?
By Melissa In Texas, August 20, 2006 @ 8:57 am

Well said! The government and their various agencies CANNOT do it all. Whether it be in the UK, or the USA.
The citizen’s must actively participate. I applaud these folks!
By blogenfreude, August 20, 2006 @ 9:13 am

So if a couple neocons in business class are dressed in suits and whispering into their Blackberries, I can have them tossed off the plane? Awesome!
By Achillea, August 20, 2006 @ 9:59 am

I can have them tossed off the plane?

If you can get several other passengers to willing to take the extraordinary steps of storming off the plane and/or refusing to board if it doesn’t happen, apparently so. How hard can it be? I mean, neocons in suits and ties are simply notorious for hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings. Okay, maybe just hijacking them … or maybe just trying to blow them up. Well, okay, maybe just getting a skinful and dissing the cabin crew. But I know we’re all appalled at the way the dreaded ‘Wall Street street’ celebrates and praises the heroism of the Salaryist jihadis whenever one of them chucks a G&T at a stewardess. And those corner-office martyrdom videos they make are plenty scary, too. So good luck with that (and with any further attempts at moral equivalence).
By Black Jack, August 20, 2006 @ 4:17 pm

Why, it’s nothing more than an airborne version of your local Neighborhood Watch Program. Good citizens keeping an eye out for each other, observing and reporting suspicious activity to the authorities, and acting to protect themselves if the authorities refuse to act.

It’s in the best traditions of enlightened self reliance, and absoulutely the best defence against airline terrorism. Bravo to the Brits. This is a major defeat for terrorism.