Possible “Dry Run” on US Flight in November

From CAN:

Witnesses on an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Houston are saying that a possible “dry run” of a terrorist attack occurred on their aircraft, WorldNetDaily.com reports.

AirTran confirms there was an incident but claims that it was only related to a single passenger and a cell phone.

The incident was first reported in a widely-circulated e-mail said to be a passenger on Flight 297 on November 17.

The e-mail says that one Muslim spoke loudly on a cell phone in Arabic to distract the first stewardess in the First Class section since using electronic devices was not permitted at the time.

The man was on the phone with another Muslim passenger, who distracted a second stewardess. Two other Muslims then began watching a video, and when the third stewardess tried to stop them, she was yelled at. At that point, the total group of about 11 Muslims stood up and walked toward the front of the plane, according to the e-mail account.

At that point, the pilots brought the plane back to the gate and law enforcement escorted the dozen or so Muslims off the aircraft and removed their luggage. Petruna claims that the group came back onto the plane, causing the flight crew to refuse to fly.

AirTran says that the e-mail contained numerous factual errors and the name listed as the author of the e-mail, Tedd Petruna, was not on the flight.

“After conducting additional research into this situation, we have verified, according to flight manifests (legally binding documents) that the individual that allegedly created a firsthand account of events onboard AirTran Airways flight 297, a Theodore Petruna, was never actually onboard the flight,” a statement on AirTran’s website reads.

Petruna did not respond to emails from WorldNetDaily.com, who instead received an automated response saying he would not speak anymore about the incident since he was threatened with losing his job.

However, WorldNetDaily.com reports, the airline failed to clarify why the flight crew was changed after the incident and why several passengers refused to get onboard the plane. AirTran did confirm that a passenger who did not speak English used a cell phone and took photos when it was not permitted, resulting in the plane returning to the gate and that the passenger and his interpreter were then escorted off of the aircraft.

The Northeast Intelligence Network, a group of private experts and investigators, argues that there’s more credibility to the e-mail than the airline wishes to admit. The director of the organization, Douglas Hagmann, says he communicated with a passenger onboard Flight 297 two days after the incident who confirmed the story.

The KHOU TV station confirmed that a passenger named Keith Robinson missed the flight but got on the aircraft after it came back to the gate and when he boarded, he saw flight attendants crying.

“He said, ‘I just saw them, there were these Middle Eastern men. They were taking pictures. They wouldn’t sit down,.’ Besides that, he said a couple of them were making gestures with their hand as if they were shooting people,” Robinson said, referring to a conversation he had with another passenger.

Another passenger, Brent Brown, confirmed to WSB Atlanta that about a dozen Muslim men on the flight talked on cell phones and walked towards the cabin and refused to sit down. His story contradicts one detail of the e-mail story as he says he did not see law enforcement actually board the plane.

Hagmann says that he has interviewed a total of seven people involved in the story, including two members of law enforcement and that he can confirm the key elements of the original e-mail.

World Threats

Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”

By Doug Hagman

On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet.

The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of values.

Interestingly, one airline official told me “we don’t want to become another flight 300,” which is a reference to a very similar scenario that took place aboard US Airways Flight 300 exactly three years ago.

I was first contacted about this incident two days after it happened by a passenger who was aboard AirTran Flight 297.

Based on the allegations made by this passenger, we conducted additional research, interviews and investigation, all of which takes time to insure accuracy, and are now able to release our report of the incident that took place aboard that aircraft.

Be prepared to be shocked, angered, and perhaps saddened by our national and corporate acquiescence to mafia-type tactics by Islamists who are engaged in a full frontal assault, and laughing about it.

Unsurprisingly, the facts we developed during the course of our investigation are inconsistent with those being reported in the media, despite the media having the responsibility to report the truth.

A group of thirteen men dressed in traditional Muslim attire were among 73 passengers who boarded AirTran Flight 297 on Tuesday, 17 November 2009, a routine flight scheduled to depart Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, gate C-16 at 4:43 PM ET to Houston Hobby Airport.

Reports developed by this investigator found two witnesses who observed direct interaction among all of these Muslim men at the terminal.

As the passengers boarded the aircraft, two of the Muslim men took seats in first class, while the remaining eleven were seated throughout the remaining rows of the aircraft. Most had carrying-on bags that they stowed in the overhead compartments above their seats.

As the aircraft began to taxi to the runway, a female flight attendant was beginning to issue the normal passenger advisories over the PA system.

Almost on cue at the time passengers were told to turn off all electronic devices, one of the Muslim men seated in the front of the plane began to use his cell phone in a manner that was described by a flight attendant and passenger “as deliberate and obvious.” He was talking loudly in Arabic, nearly at the level of the flight attendant.

Some reports suggest that this man actually called another Muslim passenger, although this has not been immediately confirmed. It is possible, however, as another passenger reported that a Muslim man seated toward the rear of the plane answered his cellular phone at the same time the man in the front began using his.

More at CFP

H/T: David F.

"And the reason he took his daughter's life, by his own words was that she wasn't being true to her religion or to her husband"

Never forget Sandeela Kanwal!

By Robert Spencer

"Begner hopes the state doesn't make this about Islam or ethnicity. This death could have happened, he says, in any culture, with any family."

Why does the mainstream media believe it necessary always to exonerate Islam from any responsibility for violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam? Who decided that this must be done, and on what grounds, and why do they all fall into lockstep without question?

NPR and the others are only enabling the murders of more women like Sandeela Kanwal. Why? Murders happen anywhere, among all groups, but this is not just a murder, it is an honor killing, and it simply isn't true that "this death could have happened...in any culture, with any family." If that were true, then where are the Christian honor killings, as one of the NPR commenters on this article said: "It would be the same part of the story is a christian said God told him to kill his daughter"? All right, put up or shut up: where are those Christians whom God is telling to kill their daughters? Read more ...

Source: Jihad Watch