Agitated on the Airliners
A few days ago a flight that was due to leave from Istanbul and headed for New York was delayed for two hours, because one of the passengers, an American, complained that he didn't feel safe because there were too many "Arab-types" aboard. In response the Turkish authorities hauled not only him but also all the other passengers back off the plane, and though they had done absolutely nothing to warrant it, those others had to undergo other security checks, in accordance with "international practice," before resuming their flights.
This comes hard on the heels of a similar incident in which eight members of a Muslim family plus a Rainbow friend were hauled off a plane due to go from D.C. to Florida, simply because as they were proceeding down the aisle after boarding, one of the women, probably talking louder than was considerate, was overheard saying that the seats near the engines weren't as safe as others elsewhere.
In that case all nine were questioned by the FBI and then released, and the airline issued apologies, though I wouldn't be surprised if they have also since been sued.
I guess, eight years after 9/11, people are still expecting the worst, and maybe they think it's long overdue. Or maybe they've been looking at the several competently-made movies about the flights involved in 9/11, with the one that smashed into the ground in Pennsylvania, I think Flight 75, having two films made about it, neither one of which have I been able to watch to the end, though I recorded both off the dish, because the suspense involved is a little too much. But maybe people see these films and imagine that had they been aboard those flights, those several "Arab-looking" young guys sitting quietly but looking a little tense would have stood out like sore thumbs to them -- never taking into account all the effects of not only hindsight but also of the way that the movies direct attention to the conspirators in ways that would never have occurred to any of the other passengers, so wrapped up would they be in their own personal concerns, comfort, and, I'm betting, the use of their ubiquitous cellphones.
The name of the villain involved in this story must not have rung a bell with the people who wrote the articles that I saw on the incident, and so they simply identified him as an American. But it certainly did resound loudly with me, though not clearly. The man who sounded the bogus alarm was a guy named Daniel Pincus, and I felt that he was quite famous for something, though the closest my mind could get was maybe a conservative pundit. But when I did a Google, all I got was that there is a tenor singer by that name, but not one of the biggies in classical and opera.
So why did that name still pluck the strings in my mind so strongly? I think that also there was a well-known New York chessmaster named Pincus back in the 1940's or so, though not necessarily a Daniel, but maybe....
I have not had occasion to board an airliner since the month after 9/11, when my wife and I were struck by a tragedy that for us personally and instantly and totally dwarfed the airline catastrophes that had just happened, and ours had nothing to do with airplanes. But what I hear about what's involved with riding airliners these days just strengthens my strong though possibly unhealthy belief in the many virtues of staying strictly at home.
People are too crazy for me, and there are lots more of them than there used to be.
This comes hard on the heels of a similar incident in which eight members of a Muslim family plus a Rainbow friend were hauled off a plane due to go from D.C. to Florida, simply because as they were proceeding down the aisle after boarding, one of the women, probably talking louder than was considerate, was overheard saying that the seats near the engines weren't as safe as others elsewhere.
In that case all nine were questioned by the FBI and then released, and the airline issued apologies, though I wouldn't be surprised if they have also since been sued.
I guess, eight years after 9/11, people are still expecting the worst, and maybe they think it's long overdue. Or maybe they've been looking at the several competently-made movies about the flights involved in 9/11, with the one that smashed into the ground in Pennsylvania, I think Flight 75, having two films made about it, neither one of which have I been able to watch to the end, though I recorded both off the dish, because the suspense involved is a little too much. But maybe people see these films and imagine that had they been aboard those flights, those several "Arab-looking" young guys sitting quietly but looking a little tense would have stood out like sore thumbs to them -- never taking into account all the effects of not only hindsight but also of the way that the movies direct attention to the conspirators in ways that would never have occurred to any of the other passengers, so wrapped up would they be in their own personal concerns, comfort, and, I'm betting, the use of their ubiquitous cellphones.
The name of the villain involved in this story must not have rung a bell with the people who wrote the articles that I saw on the incident, and so they simply identified him as an American. But it certainly did resound loudly with me, though not clearly. The man who sounded the bogus alarm was a guy named Daniel Pincus, and I felt that he was quite famous for something, though the closest my mind could get was maybe a conservative pundit. But when I did a Google, all I got was that there is a tenor singer by that name, but not one of the biggies in classical and opera.
So why did that name still pluck the strings in my mind so strongly? I think that also there was a well-known New York chessmaster named Pincus back in the 1940's or so, though not necessarily a Daniel, but maybe....
I have not had occasion to board an airliner since the month after 9/11, when my wife and I were struck by a tragedy that for us personally and instantly and totally dwarfed the airline catastrophes that had just happened, and ours had nothing to do with airplanes. But what I hear about what's involved with riding airliners these days just strengthens my strong though possibly unhealthy belief in the many virtues of staying strictly at home.
People are too crazy for me, and there are lots more of them than there used to be.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 10:58 AM
1 Comments:
I don't fly a lot. I don't know how some people stand it (I have a cousin who is gone 3 weeks a month). I've flown 3 times since 9/11, 2 for pleasure, 1 for business. All the stupid new rules and regulations did not make me feel safer, they made me feel stupid for not standing up and yelling "What the hell is WRONG with you people?"
I don't really pay attention to the people I am boarding with, although I am very careful to watch for unattended packages or luggage. And I watch the TSA people closely, because THEY are scary.
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