DETROIT — A U.S. District Judge on Sept. 3 ruled in favor of American Airlines in a lawsuit filed by five local Arab American men who claimed their ethnicity caused a flight from San Diego to Chicago to be canceled in 2007.
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Taher Alwatan, one of five local Arab Americans whose presence on an airplane caused a flight to be cancelled in 2007. |
The Detroit-area men were flying to Chicago after training U.S. Marines on Iraqi culture at Camp Pendleton in California.
They claimed Capt. John Plummer decided to return the airplane to gate because a passenger complained of fear after hearing the men speak Arabic. The flight was later cancelled.
American Airlines denied the allegations of discrimination and attributed the decision to what it deemed odd behavior by the men. Flight attendants reported that one of the men had a blanket over his head and had glared at a crewmember during safety instructions.
Borman ruled that Plummer’s decision was not “arbitrary and capricious.”
After the incident, Taher Alwatan, one of the Iraqi American passengers involved, told The Arab American News in September 2007 from his Dearborn home that he was stunned by the incident after trying to help the U.S. military.
“How can we be bad if we are helping our people here — the American people?” he asked. “Why are we getting treated like that?”
Attorney Lawrence Garcia, who represented the men, said he was disappointed in the ruling.
“It seems to me that the judge gave too much deference to the pilot’s biased and imperfect judgment and failed to give enough weight to the individual rights of the plaintiffs,” Garcia said. “We all have a right to be free from unfair suspicion, and we all have a right to equal treatment. The dismissal is a great disappointment.”
He said the men can appeal the decision but have not yet decided whether to move forward.
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