Passenger's fear of foreign-language speakers delays flight

by Lauren Nemec

A passenger on an American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Chicago delayed the flight by 11 hours over her fear that a group of other passengers were speaking a foreign language. The men, who were speaking Arabic, were defense contractors who had been training Marines at Camp Pendleton. At least one of the men is a US citizen.

The lady passenger apparently confronted the Arabic-speaking passengers and expressed her concerns to crew members during taxi. The crew decided to return to the gate and the red-eye flight was delayed until morning, so the airline had to accommodate all passengers for the evening and reschedule their flights.

A representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago stated "It is one thing to flag suspicious behavior, but to flag a global language? We are deplaning people for who they are, not what they do."

Further reading:
Chicago Sun-Times, Arabic Spoken? Plane grounded
Chicago Tribune, Plane bound for Chicago held after dispute involving Arabic-speaking men