What were those Northwest Airlines screeners thinking when they let a young Muslim man with no luggage and a one-way ticket board a transatlantic flight without the minor inconvenience of a full body search?
You may not remember the story the press dubbed the “Flying Imams” case, but it had a long grisly life in the American courts and must still haunt the dreams — and stay the hands — of anyone who works in the airline industry.
It all began in 2006, when six Muslim clerics boarded a US Airlines plane at Minneapolis-St Paul Airport but were removed after a number of passengers and the cabin crew, and eventually even the plane’s pilot and the federal air marshal, decided their behaviour was suspicious. The men first attracted attention by gathering for a mid-day group prayer in the departure lounge. Once on the plane passengers claimed they moved around the airliner, not taking their assigned seats but finding a way to distribute themselves in groups of two. (Passengers called it a “9/11 plane configuration.”) Then they were said to have loudly cursed American policies in Iraq. They also requested heavy metal seat extenders which they did not appear to need and instead of using them laid them on the floor at their feet.
The Muslim clerics, who had been attending a conference together, held press conferences where they offered a reasonable-sounding rationale for all the complained-about behaviour. And then they did the good ol’ American thing: they filed a very scary, very punitive civil rights law suit naming not just the airline (as per usual in these cases) but local law enforcement, the airport authority, and even the passengers who had passed discrete notes to airport personnel. The suit, filed in 2007, took years to wend its way through the courts and was finally settled out of court just two months ago for “an undisclosed sum”.
Was the settlement costly for the defendants? Was the reward disappointing for the plaintiffs? Did it compensate the clerics for the “fear, depression, mental pain and financial injury” claimed in their lawsuit? We will probably never know the exact amount of money that changed hands, but that’s not the important part. If you work for the airlines the important thing is that is there was a long, costly slog through the courts with much bad publicity for the airline.
Two months ago, reporting that a settlement had finally been reached, a USA Today leader writerworried that the incident “could have a chilling effect on the ability of airline crews and officials to protect passengers from a perceived threat… And it could be tragic if it prevent[s] passengers from speaking up, or airline crews from acting, when they have reasonable suspicions.”
Prophetic words.