BALTIMORE — A Dearborn woman who was on the Spirit flight from Baltimore to Chicago before multiple passengers were removed for suspicious activity said the airline acted accordingly. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Spirit Airlines confirmed that early morning flight number 969 from Baltimore to Chicago was halted just before take-off when multiple passengers were removed for an “abundance of caution.”

Dearborn resident Linda Hourani was on the plane that early morning when the pilot suddenly deterred from take off after a Caucasian woman and her daughter ran to the back of the plane.

According to multiple reports, the woman reported suspicious activity to a flight attendant when she saw a passenger watching an ISIS video on a cell phone. 

A few minutes after the plane came to an abrupt halt, the pilot told passengers that the FBI needed to come in and investigate the plane.

“The transportation officer at the airport came in and they pulled out at first two men and a woman, not so much of Middle Eastern decent,” Hourani said. 

Contrary to reports, Hourani said the initial group of people who were pulled off the plane were of Indian decent. 

She noted that about 40 minutes later, the FBI came into the plane and began calling out particular names of people who had to evacuate. She said that among the people who were evacuated was an African American male and a Caucasian male. 

“I purposely tried to catch if it was a racial call or if it was randomized. I disagree with what the reports have said. I’m certain at least two of the people called were of Middle Eastern descent.”

The take off was delayed for a few more hours. During this period, all of the passengers were removed from the plane and K-9 dogs were brought on to detect the passengers’ luggage. 

“At that point they allowed us to get back on the plane and the pilot let us know what they found was that one man had some type of threat on his phone, so that was reported by the woman who rant to the back end of the plane,” Hourani said. ” He was taken to homeland security. We were able to board the plane and take off around 9:00 a.m.”

Hourani said she believes the airline handled the situation accordingly. She believes the woman who reported the incident may have overreacted. 

“Truth be told, I was on my phone looking at the news,” Hourani added.  “Anyone could’ve said the same thing about me. I was openly looking at my phone. The whole world is looking at that kind of stuff. I don’t know if that was a reason to call it a threat.”

Following the incident Spirit Airlines issued the following statement; 

“While the aircraft was taxiing to the runway, a passenger alerted a flight attendant of a passenger engaged in suspicious activity on board. The flight attendant notified the captain, and out of an abundance of caution, the plane returned to the gate,” Spirit Airlines spokesman Stephen Schuler said.

Following the incident Muslim groups lashed out at the airline. In a press release, Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on Islamic-American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said he had witnessed an increase of incidents in which Muslims – or people who appeared to be Muslims – were being targeted.

“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to see more and more of this, Hooper said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop until we get push-back from elected officials and I am not seeing a lot of that.”