This report comes from a local UK paper, Wakefield Today: “Terror on plane” (thanks to Kemaste). They locked themselves in the bathroom and were banging on the walls. This is a strange story, but Islamic prayer, which one said was what he was doing, doesn’t involve banging on walls.
A BUSINESSMAN from Wakefield was caught up in 9/11 panic on a flight from Cyprus when two Muslim passengers were arrested for suspicious behaviour.
Paul Teasdale said chaos erupted when the two men were hauled off by police in Larnaca on Sunday — the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The 38-year-old, who runs his own electrics business, said the flight was minutes away from leaving when the incident happened.
He said: “We noticed two men in full Muslim dress get on the plane and one of them passed me to go to the toilet.
“He was in there for a while and eventually the stewardess knocked on the door to find out what he was doing. He told her he was praying.
“He then sat back down, but she must have smelt a rat because about 10 minutes later two policemen came on board to take them off. After that it was just pandemonium.”
Mr Teasdale, of Wood Lane, Overton, said after the men were removed some passengers refused to stay on board.
He added: “Women were crying and everyone was getting a bit excited. Then someone said “˜hang on a minute, it’s 9/11”. It sounds stupid now, but at the time we were thinking of our lives.”…
Sue Lister, spokeswoman for Excel Airways, said the men were taken off the plane as they were acting “anti-socially”. She said: “One of the men ran down to the rear toilet, one to the front. They locked themselves in and were banging on the walls. It was not normal behaviour. The decision was taken to offload them and the captain made the decision to delay the flight.”
Their ethnicity was not a factor, she said. She added: “Hopefully the passengers realise the reason for the decision.”
Ethnicity? Why should ethnicity have anything to do with it? We are facing an ideology, not an ethnicity.