Passenger Kicked off Flight for Receiving Text With Word ‘Dynamite’
After obtaining an airline incident report through the Maryland Public Information Act request, the Associated Press has reported that four passengers were recently kicked off a plane because a fellow passenger accused one of the passengers of suspicious activity. She claimed the passenger had received a text that used the word “dynamite” and included the code for an airport in India.
The incident took place on Nov. 17 on a Spirit Airlines plane at the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The flight was headed for Chicago.
According to the report, a female passenger complained to the crew about a male passenger’s suspicious activity, which included making phone calls in another language and reportedly receiving a text message that said “BLR Dynamite.” (BLR is the code for Bengaluru International Airport in Bangalore, India.)
However, according to First Sgt. Jonathan Green, spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, officers did not find that message on the phone of the passenger in question.
A passenger was kicked off a plane for reportedly receiving a text with the word “dynamite.” (Photo: Thinkstock)
The plane returned to the gate, and all of the passengers were forced to deplane. Three men — including the passenger who had received the text — and a woman were held and questioned by Transportation Authority Police officers, a TSA air marshal, and a Joint Terrorism Task Force agent.
Related: Arabic Man Kept Off Southwest Airlines Flight, Claims Discrimination
There have been a number of recent incidents where passengers have reported fellow passengers for suspicious behavior.
On Nov. 18, at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, a passenger overheard Maher Khalil, a pizza shop owner from Philadelphia, speaking Arabic and reported him to the crew. Khalil and a friend were briefly stopped from boarding a Southwest Airlines flight. “If that person doesn’t feel safe, let them take the bus,” Khalil reportedly told a gate agent. “We’re American citizens just like everybody else.”
Khalil called 911 to complain; he and his travel companion were later allowed to board.
Passengers were held back from two recent Southwest Airlines flights. (Photo: Wikimedia)
Another Southwest flight from Chicago to Houston was also delayed the same day, when passengers wouldn’t let six Muslims aboard the flight. Southwest Airlines rebooked the Muslim passengers on another flight and issued a statement that said: “Safety is our primary focus, and our employees are trained to make decisions to ensure that safety, and to safeguard the security of our crews and customers on every flight."
Security experts say that recent terrorist attacks and increased security worldwide are causing more people to report incidents they believe to be suspicious.
“All that creates a nervousness among the traveling public — a sense of heightened awareness,” Anthony Roman, founder of the New York-based security firm Roman & Associates, told Yahoo Travel. "That sense of heightened awareness will now cause the average passenger to look around more in the terminals, to watch individuals that they believe are behaving suspiciously.”
More from Yahoo Travel:
It’s Easy to Get Kicked Off a Plane: What if it Happens to You?
15 Passengers Kicked Off Planes in One Week — What’s Going On?
What ‘Suspicious Behavior’ Should You Report in the Age of Terrorism?
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