Plane Passengers doing the "profiling"

Daily Mail article - Link

While it may seem that some of the passengers' actions in forcing two men of Asian appearance off a Monarch Airlines ZB 613 flight (Malaga to Manchester, UK) was done with good intentions, it creates more harm than good in letting the terrorists dictate our actions and reactions to the latest scare.

It seems that some of the 150 passengers overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking in Arabic. A female passenger near them allegedly heard some comments that were "disturbing" to her. Worries among the people began to spread. Further suspicion was aroused because since it was hot, the two men were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers (sweaters) and were regularly checking their watches. Of course it is unclear whether the departure lounge was air-conditioned, plus we all look at our watch when a flight is being delayed on a normal basis.

At first, six passengers refused to board the flight. Further surprise was made when a family group stood up and walked off the plane, followed by other passengers. Essentially, they refused to board the plane until the two Asian men were removed. The two Asian passengers were escorted off the jet, then three hours later, after another security sweep, the aircraft was cleared to leave.

The two men were later cleared by airport security and rebooked to travel to Manchester on a later flight.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory (opposition) Homeland Security spokesman, said that it was a "victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally." The Civil Guard in Malaga responded, "These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane."

So was it right for these passengers to judge the appearance of these two Asian men and decide that they are a threat to the security of the aircraft? These two men were security-checked. In a different incident, two British women with young children complained about flying with a bearded Muslim even though he had been security-checked twice before boarding.

Was it the right thing to do? Could this happen on an American flight? It would seem that anyone of "color" could "threaten" the safety of all the passengers and crew. It is true that we may give a "second look" to Muslims, but could it spread from there? A security scare in West Virginia led to the detention of a woman of Pakistani descent. Could this lead to more apprehension among passengers about Pakistani people in general? The only problem is that Pakistani and Indian come from the same region, so they would have similiar features. Indian people could also find themselves under more scrutiny. If it was an Asian terrorist plot, then Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people fall under the scope.

Seriously, this could bring about a precedent where another passenger can decide whether you, a fellow passenger, are a threat to them, and because of the increase in the security threat, the crew would, for the sake of convenience, choose to remove the person rather than ignoring the passengers' concerns. Look at the numbers. Should we remove two passengers? Or ignore the concerns of the other 148?

I can also find it disconcerting if a person who is of a minority group attain a first-class ticket on a long-haul flight, and the rest of the first-class cabin (which likely could be caucausian) can view that person with suspicion. Their first suggestion in their mind is whether this person is a terrorist. It may seem paranoid to suggest such a thing, but I believe it does happen.

Profiling by passengers is a dangerous combination, whether it results in something good or bad. We leave it to our government to maintain and enforce our security checkpoints and the airline's staff and crew to keep the plane secured. There are at times where we must leave it to the professionals to determine what proper action should be taken.