AirTran 9

In January 2009, a large Muslim family traveling with a close friend was removed from an AirTran Airways flight after other passengers on the flight described a comment made by two members of the group as “suspicious.” Although the FBI cleared the nine Muslim passengers for travel and found that the group posed no security threat, and even after the group missed their original flight, AirTran still refused to book them on a later flight. The incident unfolded as follows: On January 1, 2009, brothers Kashif Irfan (an anesthesiologist) and Atif Irfan (a tax attorney) sought to travel with their sister and families from Washington D.C. to Orlando, FL on AirTran Flight 175. Their friend, Abdul Aziz, a United States Library of Congress attorney, was also on the flight. Five of the six adults in the group were of South Asian descent. The women wore Islamic headscarves and the men were bearded. While boarding the plane, two members of the Irfan family had been casually speaking about the “safest place to sit on an airplane,” discussing whether it was safer to sit close to the wings, the engine, the front or the back of the plane. Another passenger overheard the conversation and reported it as “suspicious” to crew members, who notified federal marshals on board the aircraft, who then required all passengers and crew to disembark and all baggage to be removed. When all other passengers were permitted to reboard the aircraft, the Irfan family (including their young children) was detained in the jet bridge, which connected the aircraft to the airport. Aziz was also detained because he had been seen speaking to the Irfan family in the gate area. The flight departed two hours behind schedule without the Irfan family or Aziz. After interviewing the Muslim passengers, the FBI determined that none of the members of the group posed a security threat. However, when the Irfan family and Aziz attempted to rebook onto a later AirTran flight, they were refused. Even after an FBI agent spoke directly to AirTran staff and communicated that the nine Muslim passengers had been officially cleared, AirTrantill refused to rebook any member of the group. All nine passengers, including the children, were forced to purchase new round-trip tickets on another airline in order to continue their trip to Orlando. Following the incident, AirTran issued a press release indicating that it did not re-book the Irfan family and Aziz “because the security concern had not been resolved and because one member of the group ‘became irate and made inappropriate comments.’” Three hours later, however, AirTran issued another press release expressing its “regret that the passengers on Flight 175 did not have a positive travel experience” and that the “issue escalated to the heightened security level it did.” It refunded the airfares of the nine passengers, but insisted that the steps taken were “necessary” and called for a need to recognize “that the security and the safety of our passengers is paramount and cannot be compromised.” These incidents underscore that ordinary, law-abiding people who are or appear to be Muslim, Sikh, Arab and South Asian continue to experience discrimination and differential treatment by airlines and government officials when they are engaging in air travel—even if the individuals do nothing to warrant heightened security scrutiny.

Source: The Persistence Of Racial And Ethnic Profiling In The United States by ACLU and Rights Working Group (August 2009)