Bigotry causes terror scare
November 17, 2011
A plane heading from North Carolina to New York was instructed to make an emergency landing after the captain was accidentally locked in the bathroom due to a faulty lock (Full story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/pilot-locked-in-bathroom-_n_1099085.html).
Where it turns into a terror scare is here: A passenger, who heard the captain banging on the door, knocked on the cockpit door and provided the password telling the co-pilot what had happened. The co-pilot, however, reported to air traffic controllers that the man had a “thick foreign accent” so he didn’t believe him. Air traffic controllers told him to “declare an emergency and just get on the ground”.
The captain was able to free himself and report what happened before the emergency landing actually happened, but still the plane was met by the FBI and the passenger was questioned (which means he was, however briefly, detained). He (kindly) accepted the misunderstanding.
The media, overwhelmingly portraying this as a “thank goodness this turned out to be nothing, but what a scare!” story, is really missing the point. It really shouldn’t have been a scare.
The man had an accent – which I’m betting wasn’t British or French or German or even Russian – and the co-pilot automatically assumed he was lying, in spite of the fact that he gave a perfectly plausible explanation and the appropriate code word to let the co-pilot know that it was actually coming from the captain.
This incident was escalated into at “terror scare” due to bigotry plain and simple. And the man who was trying to help had the misfortune of flying while foreign, and paid the (albeit small) price.
And instead of incitefully unpacking that fact, the media is simply rah-rahing, telling the masses that this is good – this is how things are supposed to be.
