Muslim families removed from AirTran flight get apology
Nine passengers were questioned after teens overheard their chatting about airline safety. The FBI cleared the U.S. citizens but the airline refused them passage.
Reporting from Washington — After helping deliver the District of Columbia's first baby of 2009, Dr. Kashif Irfan boarded a flight to Orlando, Fla., with his wife, three children and other relatives to participate in a weekend retreat on the peaceful practice of Islam. But instead of taking off as scheduled, Irfan and his family were suddenly ordered off the plane, detained in the airport and refused passage by the airline after they were cleared by the FBI.
"I was thinking, 'What could we have possibly done to render us liable to this form of treatment?' " said Irfan, a U.S. citizen born in Detroit.
The handling of the Irfan family, after comments one of them made about airline safety aroused suspicions of two teenage passengers, caused an uproar Friday among Muslim Americans.
Orlando-based AirTran Airways apologized to the family. It said it refunded their air fares, agreed to reimburse them for replacement tickets they bought on US Airways after refusing to fly them Thursday, and offered to fly the passengers back to Washington free of charge.
"We apologize to all the passengers -- to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight," the airline said in a statement. "Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year's Day, and we regret it."
The airline called the incident a "misunderstanding," but added that the steps that were taken were necessary to ensure security and safety.
The Irfan family was boarding Thursday when Irfan's wife made a comment about the safest place to sit on the plane, according to Irfan's brother Atif, who was also on the flight with his wife and wife's sister.
"It was a very lighthearted conversation about the safest spot of the plane," said Atif, 29, who is a lawyer in Alexandria, Va. "But, I guess, these two teenage girls had gleaned from our conversation that we were going to try and take over the plane."
That conversation caused the eight family members and a friend, who was also traveling to the conference, to be escorted off the plane and questioned by FBI agents. Federal officials removed the rest of the passengers, did a sweep of the aircraft and then re-screened everyone before allowing the flight to depart about two hours behind schedule.
The Irfan brothers said Friday that they thought they had been profiled based on their appearances. The men had beards, and the women wore head scarves.
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