Interesting story been unfolding in the US.
Basically a flight was delayed, and one of the passengers claimed that it was due to Muslims acting in a threatening manner:
oldnfo.blogspot.com/2009/11/testing-testing.html
"If you read the papers the 18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone before takeoff. [e.g., see www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/faa-to-investigate-cell-202143.html] It was on Fox.
This was NOT what happened.
I was in 1st class coming home. 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. 2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves throughout the plane all the way to the back. As the plane taxied to the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so familiar with. At that time, one of the men got on his cell and called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively. This took the 1st stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at the time. He ignored her as if she was not there.
The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now?.they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (don?t ask me?.I don?t make the rules, but I?ve studied). The 3rd stewardess informed them that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time. To which one of the men said ?shut up infidel dog!? She went to take the camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin. This is where I had had enough! I got up and started to the back where I heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say ?I got your back.? I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm and said ?you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!? As I ?led? him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, ?You WILL do the same!? He protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go. As I escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4 police officers entered. Me and my new Texan friend were told to cease and desist for they had this under control. I was happy to oblige actually. There was some commotion in the back, but within moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane. They then unloaded their luggage.
We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it). The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this, she was having NONE of it! Being that I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with these men. The agent told her they had searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston. The captain and co-captain came out and told the agent ?we and our crew will not fly this plane!? After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. 5 minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on.
Again?..this is where I had had enough!!! I got up and asked ?What the hell is going on!?!?? I was told to take my seat. They were sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly. I said ?I?m getting off this plane?. The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off. (now I?m mad!) I said ?I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who?s time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I?m going through that door with you under my arm!! But I am going through that door!!? And I heard a voice behind me say ?so am I?. Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same. Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement. I had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6pm. I got here at 12:30am.
Look up the date. Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.
If this wasn?t a dry run, I don?t know what one is. They wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the passengers would handle it.
I?m telling this to you because I want you to know?.
The threat is real. I saw it with my own eyes?.
"
--
The man who wrote this was 'Tedd Petruna' www.facebook.com/people/Tedd-Petruna/1513776725, a diver for NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Center.
The blogger adds his own little note:
"Although this statement- "In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were very loud about it. Now?.they are only permitted to do this prior to Jihad. " Makes me wonder if they were going to try to overpower the crew and create a crash scenario..."
-----
The flight was indeed delayed, and a man who was running late managed to board, in the process bumping into Mr. Petruna.
This man just happens to be a 'disaster Chaplain', who features the WTC on his website: chaplainservice.net/hoh.pdf
Anyway, the Chaplain, was told the story quoted above as he was waiting to board the delayed plane, which he relates here:
espositosmusings.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/air-tran-flight-297-incident1.pdf
adding:
"One hour into the flight thankfully nothing had happened. The outer skin of Flight 297?s body must have radiated with prayers ascending into heaven from the passengers?and the one Chaplain at the back of the plane. Each of the Middle Eastern men remained quiet but frequently went into the overhead compartments to retrieve what appeared to be electronic devices and other packages from their backpacks. I was thankful when the men in the back of the plane appeared to nod off into a harmless sleep.
One of the 10 men from Business Class came back to retrieve a box marked as a Mac Notebook. He brought it to the front of the plane and put it in third compartment on the left of the plane.
Obviously, in Atlanta the officials from Air Tran had been placed in a difficult ethnic position that directly resulted from the inappropriate, threatening actions of these 12 Middle Eastern men. And, obviously vacillating between appropriately removing these men permanently off the plane and sequestering them for the threats they made toward these passengers on the flight - or taking the "politically correct" action of taking them off, questioning them and then putting most of them back on the plane - Air Tran took the easy way out and put most of them back on board. As in most dilemma situations both parties are never equally affected by the resulting action. By putting 10 of the men back on the plane, Air Tran decided that it was better to emotionally traumatize each and every one of the remaining passengers on Air Tran Flight 297 for the remainder of the flight. They had a chance to remove the offenders - but didn't.
Only a few weeks before this flight experience one Middle Eastern man killed many soldiers in the name of Allah at Fort Hood, Texas. This experience placed many in America into a 9‐12 state of mental preparedness. Most of us realize that there are pockets of radical Islamists right here in America awaiting either an internal or external signal to strike again at Americans?just as they did on 9‐11. The realities of these events can?t help but condition our minds for protection.
As a Chaplain I ask myself, would America have been better off if a group of passengers on Air Tran Flight 297 assumed the 9‐12 mentality of preparedness and launched a group attack on these men, forcing them into their seats until the plane parked again in its Atlanta International jet way? Were the passengers right to just put up with the obvious intimidation by these men until the flight was over? And, could it be that we actually endorsed the actions of these men by not taking action against them when they made their first imaginary shooting action toward an American on that flight?
How many times would it take for Americans forcefully to stand up for their safety based solely on the aggressive and threatening actions of these men as people threatening Americans, for them to see that Americans won?t tolerate physical or psychological intimidation at all anymore?
"
[and it continues in the same vein going on about America and freedom and founding fathers and such like.]
These two accounts started circulating like wildfire around the US, with stuff like:
www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread524317/pg1 "Another Muslim Hijacking Dry Run?"
and dozens of similar sites wetting themselves in excitement.
It soon made its way to more reputable sources: aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/so-was-this-a-language-misunde.html
And the Chaplain was putting himself about like a cheap hooker.
www.melissaclouthier.com/2009/12/03/another-terrorist-dry-run-part-ii-interview-with-witness-dr-keit h-robinson
He said in the interview there, that after having been told the story by the passenger Petruna, which included that one of the passengers was "making machine gun gestures with their hands", and boarding himself, that the passengers were not in fact wearing any form of Muslim clothes, but that they
"were pretty much in a stoic mode at this point. They would only speak a middle eastern language. This is the part I experienced."
Adding:
"When we got off the plane the individuals met in the baggage area. They seemed pretty happy. I don't know what the purpose of their happiness. I sensed that we had been through something that had been either planned or just erupted as part of a defiance that they have."
"Why didn't they keep them off? This is the tyranny of the minority. We have to conduct ourselves differently. Just before this was Fort Hood. Americans were on the edge already. We know there have been other tests of airlines already, although those have been silenced it seems."
So this is going round the US, getting people very excited. The source of it, the Tedd Petruna guy is starting to keep a low profile, and admits that there was no porn, and they actually weren't wearing Muslim clothes, but that the rest was true.
www.khou.com/home/AirTran-e-mail-stirs-up-Internet-firestorm-78474802.html
By this point the airline, AirTran have obviously had a lot of attention about this, so they put out a statement, refuting the email above saying
"The full party was 13 individuals. Their religion is not known to anyone at AirTran. The individuals in this party proceeded to their seats throughout the aircraft and were dressed like any other passenger.
There have been no reports of any individual phoning any other individual on the flight. Furthermore it would be extremely difficult to know who someone is calling. If they are calling someone in the back of the plane, the person listening in on this conversation would not be able to hear the person in the back of the plane nor know where the call was going to.
It would be impossible to know what people were allegedly watching or whom they were speaking with in the back of the plane from Business Class. Furthermore, how would anyone know what was on this alleged videotape or when it was made?
While the flight attendants did ask an individual to discontinue the use of portable electronic devices, there are no reports of screaming or shouting insults to our Crew Members.
There are no reports of any passenger standing up in a threatening manner. At NO time was there any physical altercation between passengers. Upon returning to the gate, the individual on the phone and his party were asked to de-plane and did so in full compliance of Crew Members? instructions.
At NO time was there any physical altercation between passengers.
After determining none of the individuals posed a security threat to the aircraft, the party was allowed to re-plane."
Still the conspiracy theorists weren't happy and were calling it a cover-up. Then the airline added an addendum to their statement:
"After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests (legally binding documents) that the individual that allegedly created a first-hand account of events on-board AirTran Airways flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually on-board the flight.
According to all available records, Mr. Petruna?s trip originated from Akron-Caton, Ohio (CAK) on AirTran flight 205. This flight arrived at the gate in Atlanta at 5:06 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Flight 297, the flight which Mr. Patruna allegedly wrote a first-hand account of, originally pushed back from its gate in Atlanta at 4:40 p.m. EST, a full 26 minutes before flight 205 arrived at the gate in Atlanta making this flight connection impossible.
While Mr. Patruna was originally scheduled to begin his journey on AirTran flight 202 from CAK and connect to flight 297 in Atlanta he did not make that original flight."
www.insideairtran.com/?p=2200
Welcome to America baby!