Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh is a motivational speaker and an American Airlines Executive Platinum member. He claims that AA cancelled his flight because crew members were suspicious of him and another Muslim passenger onboard.
The incident occurred onboard AA5886, a Mesa-operated American Eagle flight from Birmingham, Alabama (BHM) to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) on September 14th.
So why was the flight canceled?
Alkhawaldeh, who is a top-tier Executive Platinum member in the American Airlines AAdvantage program (meaning he flies more than 100,000 miles per year on AA and its partners) ran into his friend Issam Abdallah onboard.
Alkhawaldeh told CBS News that Abdallah’s choice to flush the toilet twice was deemed problematic.
The flight attendant reported that he went to the restroom and flushed the toilet twice. The last time I know, flushing is allowed in this country…
Flight attendants allegedly also did not like that Alkhawaldeh waved to Abdallah when boarding (the two men were not traveling together, with Alkhawaldeh seated in first class and Abdallah in economy).
After the flushing incident occurred, the flight crew announced that the flight was cancelled.
Upon exiting the plane, law enforcement officials were waiting to question the two men (and only the two men). They were not initially detained, but were followed by uniformed police officers as they walked to an airport coffee shop.
A few minutes later, police officers approached them again and led them to a private interrogation room. TSA officers were waiting to carefully search their bags. An FBI agent showed up and also interviewed them.
Alkhawaldeh fumed:
To be treated like this, with disrespect, suspicion, profiled me, question me in public, get my bags to be checked again for absolutely no reason…This is absurd, unacceptable and un-American!
Let me just say that I often flush the toilet twice, especially on regional jets which tend to use low-flow toilets. That’s because other passengers are often too lazy or disrespectful to flush the toilet and because one flush is often insufficient to clean the bowl.
American, thus far, has very cautiously addressed the issue and not made any assumptions:
American and all of its regional partners have an obligation to take safety and security concerns raised by crew members and passengers seriously. Our team is working with Mesa to review this incident, and we have reached out to Mr. Alkhawaldeh and Mr. Abdallah to better understand their experience.
CONCLUSION
I’ve been burned before by speculating, so I will only say that if the incident unfolded as described, then flight attendants are guilty of shameful profiling and paranoia and the two men are owed an apology. No person should be removed from a flight for waving to his friend or flushing the toilet twice…
image: Eric Salard/ Flickr
Everyone is a poor victim and bloggers love to fan the flames. I want the airline to “err” on the side of safety Every Time. Just stop with shooting first and aiming later. Pathetic
Easy to say when you’re not the one the airlines are “erring” on the side of safety…
Two white men board a plane. One waves at the other. One uses the restroom and flushes twice. What happens?
Racist much, Global? Perhaps you should change your name to Alabama.
Exactly! There was ZERO safety issue here. Only a racist and Islamophobic Mesa Airways flight crew.
Canceling a flight because a Muslim flushes the toilet twice is NOT erring on the side of safety, it is erring on the side of stupidity.
If this unfolds EXACTLY how the passenger described, all of the flight crew involved should be fired.
Wait until you fly jetsuite-x out of Burbank. It’s cool that u don’t have to go thru security until u realize no one else is going thru security. It’s like an invitation to anyone who wants to bring guns or drugs to Vegas.
Exactky, @Gl9bal. Better safe than sorry. Look what ALL Americans have to go through with TSA due to these Muslims’ co-religionists. 9/11 ruined the joy of flying forever.
Profiling is the BEST way to insure innocent people’s safety. While everyone knows that, the politically correct goons have decreed that random checks – rather than profiling – be used at American airpirts.
I applaud American Airlines for caring more about passenger and crew members’ safety than about “progressive” political correctness.
Most European airlines and especially El Al profile, far more effective and less of a total pain than hopelessly useless TSA bolderdiddle
And here’s Ivy, yet another Alabama product wearing a Make Racism Great Again hat.
This is not profiling, idiot. Security profiling is something done by experts behind the scenes in ways you never know and are never intrusive. You seem to believe that profiling is something that “Beth,” the 24 year old regional jet flight attendant making $15 an hour and with a two year community college associate degree in fashion merchandising should do when she sees two Middle Eastern men board the plane and say hello to each other. That is mob mentality and vigilantism. It’s pure racism as a result of a lack of educated employees who have any semblance of training to make decisions as bold as these.
This is not about being politically correct. It’s about being sensible and understanding to the multi-cultural society we live in. But, of course, two disgusting and vile people like both of you would never get that.
You should both be more than ashamed. Actually, you should both be condemned to seat 47E and made to fly red eyes for the rest of your life for being such complete and utter morons.
This comment doesn’t even pretend not to be racist (“due to these Muslims’ co-religionists”), Matt pls do step in and moderate.
America’s changing demographics must terrify people like Ivy.
Even if the incident unfolded as described, the flight attendants and the airlines are right. Safety and security of everyone (crews, passengers) always comes first. Its better to report a suspicious activity rather than come home in a body bag. We always have to uphold freedom and democracy and free speech.
This is not paranoia. Nor is stupidity. This is american defending freedom and democracy.
@James, how is flushing a toilet a suspicious activity?
You have one side (of a narrative being pushed), yet you are fully ready to take the rake to the face. As happens over and over again.
You can virtue signal, I’ll remain glad the security precautions in place are executed.
My comment is directed to IKC, not James
We need more idiots like you in this country to keep Trump as the president.
“This is american defending freedom and democracy”
By…busting someone for double flushing and waving?
The founding fathers would be so proud.
That isn’t defending freedom and democracy – it is killing it. The land of the free and the home of the brave should not be afraid of a toilet flush
“uninformed police officers” hehe seems appropriate word choice actually
“They were not initially detained, but were followed by uninformed police officers as they walked to an airport coffee shop.”
Obviously someone should have informed those police officers WTF was going on.
This is likely racist bias, by far. However, signalling between seemingly unrelated passengers is exactly what happened on 9/11. Marwan al-Shehhi was the hijacker pilot of UA175 (spelling of his name may be my error) in first class. The muscle hijackers (those without flying skills) were scattered throughout the plane.
If you are a man or an ugly woman, you have been discriminated against compared to an attractive woman. They get a lot of breaks which usually outweigh when a woman is not wanted for the job.
Funny, they talk about “racial profiling” of Muslims. Last I checked, Islam was a religion and not a race. Before getting on too big a soapbox, it would be worth checking on these two individuals connection with ICNA.
Sure. And just to be safe, let’s check in to you to.. just to be safe….
https://www.jta.org/2018/09/27/global/jewish-group-seeks-ban-muslim-delegations-trip-citing-alleged-terrorist-ties
I really hope they should sue the shit out of the airline. And maybe they should not be targeting passengers so much. When they have ISIS mechanics.
Yes, one mechanic represents an entire religion…lol
Playing the race card again? “Muslim” is NOT a race.
If they were kicked off the plane for being Muslim, then that’s discrimination. But hard to prove.
Get rid of guns first then we shall talk about religion. Guns kill more Americans than religion, it should be banned, outright, regardless.
Naaah… Swiss people have more guns per citizen than american. How many died due to it? Maybe they’re better educated? Or maybe they’re less obese?
wait – y’all are listening to and counting our flushes?
So it’s the ‘Land of the Free’ as long as you are white and a bigot?
I’ll stay in Europe where were are much safer and don’t shoot each other on a whim and we can flush the toilet more than once.
Regarding John’s comments about El Al profiling, let me unequivocally state that the El Al security agents don’t routinely put any passengers through the same BS, as do the incompetent TSA agents; incidentally, TSA stands for totally, stupid, a—s. El Al screening agents are much better educated than the TSA, are more competent, and know what they are doing.
Five years ago, I enrolled in the TSA pre program. The woman who tried to fingerprint me was very rude, and rough, during the process. Years ago, when I was in the armed forces, the recruiter was much more gentle. Even when I was fingerprinted for a government job, those doing the fingerprinting were also very gentle. However, the snake who fingerprinted me, was not nice. She claimed that my fingerprints had worn off (because of age), and she couldn’t get any clear prints. She also claimed that my TSA pre approval would be delayed. P.S. It was not delayed at all. In any event, I was initially informed (five years later), that I could renew online. However, when I filled out the form, I was notified that I would still have to report in person. There is no way that I’m going through that nonsense again. Also, I really didn’t see the benefit of that program anyway. The only advantage was that a few minutes might be saved waiting at the check in line. Otherwise, the exact same screening is performed, whether or not one is a TSA pre member or not. Last year, at the John Glenn Airport, I went through the screening machine, and didn’t set it off. All of a sudden, an idiotic TSA member told me that I was “selected for secondary screening”. This is a very subjective and intrusive process which the TSA routinely subjects the public to, without any justification. El Al never routinely does that. Therefore, what did I pay $85.00 for-to have that jackass feel my groin in public?
vI’b’mve