A CHARTER flight taking British tourists back to Manchester was cancelled last Sunday after passengers panicked about the presence of two Pakistanis, whom they suspected to be terrorists. These suspicions grew after one of the two Pakistanis ad spent 10 minutes in the toilet before take-off. On hearing the commotion in the passenger cabin and being told what had happened, the captain decided not take off.
The two hapless ‘suspects’ were handed over to the police for questioning, all the luggage was taken off the plane and checked, while security staff inspected the plane. No explosives or weapons were found and the police set the two alleged terrorists free after questioning them. All passengers stayed in a hotel overnight and were flown to Manchester the following day; the two ‘suspects’ returned to Britain on another flight.
It was not the first time something like this had happened at Larnaca airport. A year ago, a flight to Moscow was cancelled after Russian passengers became paranoid about the presence of dark-skinned man on the plane, whom they suspected of being a Chechen terrorist and started searching through his hand luggage. On another occasion, a man was ordered off a plane by an Aeroflot captain because of similarly unfounded suspicions.
While passenger paranoia and fear are understandable after the terrorist attacks of the past few years, reactions such as these could justifiably be construed as racist persecution. In all the above-mentioned cases, the only criterion for labelling these men ‘terrorists’ was the colour of their skin, an indication of how successful Islamic terrorists have been in spreading fear and paranoia. It is no coincidence that the people who turned against their fellow-passengers were from countries that have been targeted by Islamic terrorists – Britain and Russia.
Unfortunately, there are no quick fix solutions. What can an airline do when it has dozens of panicking passengers on its plane, demanding that a passenger be removed because he looks like a terrorist? It cannot tell them to get off the plane and fly to their destination with another company, even though this might seem the sensible thing to do – it is easier to make the suspected terrorist get off the plane. Most airlines have no policy, leaving the final say to the captain who will consider all factors before deciding what action to take.
In theory, the captain should try and calm down passengers, considering the sophisticated level of security now in force at airports. But when passengers are gripped by paranoid fear, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to convince them with rational arguments. The terrorists have been successful in this respect.
