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AMERICAN HOLDS FIRM ON PROTECTING THE SAFETY OF ITS PASSENGERS
American Airlines today said it would not be deterred from protecting the safety of its passengers by frivolous claims of racial profiling asserted by the Washington, D.C. law firm of Relman & Associates. The company said: "American carries out its security obligations according to the guidelines provided by the Federal government. Those guidelines are applied equally among all passengers, and the company vigorously resents any suggestion of racial discrimination. "Threats of lawsuits will not deter us from justly applying the security programs established to protect the tens of millions of customers who entrust us with their lives each year." American finds the "facts" released by the law firm today surprising and irresponsible since the firm has not discussed this incident with any American Airlines employee involved. Airline employees said the passenger, an armed Secret Service agent, behaved inappropriately. The airline said that, while it also would prefer to resolve this situation in an amicable way, it cannot allow misleading information to go uncorrected. American therefore feels obligated to release the attached copies of incident reports filed by the captain of Flight 363 and the manager of the airline’s System Operations Control center who spoke directly with the passenger. "These reports paint a clear and consistent picture of what occurred during this agent’s attempt to board Flight 363," the airline said. "While we’ll let the reports speak for themselves, we will reiterate that American will not allow any armed individual onboard, regardless of who he or she is, if that person is angry or acting in a manner that the crew believes could jeopardize the safety of the flight." American can confirm that, as stated in the captain’s report, he has filed a letter of complaint with the Secret Service. As this incident is now under investigation by the Secret Service, American cannot comment beyond this statement. Text of Captain’s
Statement Armed passenger * flight 363 BWI/DFW. Flight was scheduled to leave at 1715. I was notified that due to a mechanical at the next gate - they would hold our push for approximately 30-40 minutes to try to accommodate those pax going to DFW. A few moments later the *1 flt attendant brought to my attention that she and other flt att were concerned about the actions of one of the pax. This pax left the aircraft with carryon bags still in his seat. He told the flt att. Please don’t leave without him. While the pax was away a flt att observed books in the individuals seat which were written in what she assessed was Arabic style print. Upon further investigation - when the individual came back it was determined that he was in fact our ‘armed passenger’. I then decided to stop my pre-flt and review the AA E2. The form was unreadable because it was a carbon-copy and there were missing items. I then had the agent come back and recheck his credentials and give me a new AA E2. Again this form was filled out improperly. I left my seat to speak to the individual. He appeared nervous and anxious. With all the forms that I received in error I determined that the most prudent course of action was to call dispatch to phone patch me to the SOC. I asked them to fax me a copy of what the Secret Service credentials looks like. He advised me that BWI should have this information. BWI in fact does not. We still were accommodating the connecting passengers and had time to further determine the proper credentials of this person. While all this was going on the individual approached me in front of the lead agent and asked why he was being denied boarding for so long. I disclosed to him that the paper work was not correct and that I needed to have this fixed before he would be accommodated. This was an AA issue and none of his concern. At this time the individual became very hostile with me. Upon all the information that I had up to this point - I had doubt as to his actual representation as a Special Agent for the Secret Service. 1. *Two improperly filled out AA Form E2. 2. *Flt atts bringing to my attention what appeared to be strange behavior. 3. *Hostility toward me for trying to correct my required paper work. I then had the Maryland Airport Authority police determine his proper ID by calling the Secret Service as to his legitimate status. This took about ten minutes to complete. In the interim I was given a third improperly filled out AA Form E2. This had no signature of the LEO. No initial as to the traveling status of the officer. No phone number. While the police were determining the proper status of this individual this person came up to me with loud abusive comments as to his being denied boarding. That he has the powers of the White House behind him and that this is not of [sic] the end of this matter. The police agreed with me that there was a legitimate concern because of his unprofessional behavior. This was all in full view of every passenger boarding the flight. He then said he would not board the flt. As it turned out he was an actual LEO. After the events of 9/11 and another of our fls targeted with explosives and causing injury to a flt att I absolutely felt correct in having this individuals [sic] identification validated. After three improper AA Form E2s [sic] and the behavior of this individual, I needed to be 100% sure of his credentials. If he just let us do our job of getting the paper work in order, he would have been boarded, and it would have been a pleasure to carry an ‘armed passenger’. With the lives of the entire passengers and crew, I was uncomfortable with his actions and did what a Captain should do and edge toward the side of safety and not move the aircraft until I’m confident that all issues are satisfied before taking off. As a note, I am filling [sic] a misconduct report with the Secret Services Internal Affairs division. I would suggest that AA Security follow up on this matter because this individual made the entire crew uncomfortable with his actions and absolutely with his confrontational behavior toward me. The police officer who was very helpful was officer (redacted). The case # was (redacted). The Secret Service Agent’s name was (redacted). Passports and fraudulent IDs can easily be altered to look passable. With all the items to this event not adding up, I absolutely believe I acted in the best interest of my crew, pax and AA. Text of SOC Manager’s Statement: I was working as Center Manager on Christmas and received a call from Captain (employee number ) flying flight 363 from BWI/DFW. The Captain had a concern about a passenger onboard his flight. The Captain first requested a fax containing all wanted terrorist photos that American had available. I explained that this was not possible and asked exactly what problem he was encountering. He said that he received paperwork for a passenger that stated he was a Secret Service Agent and would be traveling armed. The Captain said that the paperwork contained scratched out flight numbers and may have been altered. I then suggested that the Captain request new paperwork. The Captain called back again and stated the he was still questioning the validity of this passenger working for the Secret Service because the secret service agent had failed to fill the paperwork out properly again. I asked if he had looked at the agent credentials. He said you work for the airline, you know how easy it would be to get fake I.D. I suggested that I could call the Secret Service and verify that this passenger was in fact an agent. I asked the Captain to request the agent’s superiors [sic] name and number. The Captain said that we should not use his information because he could have a friend answering the phone when we called. I then suggested get the local police to verify the I.D. since, being located at BWI, they would have exposure to Secret Service I.D.’s and contact phone numbers. The next phone call I received was from the AA ticket agent at BWI. He said that the Secret Service agent had verbally abused the Captain and that the Captain was denying him boarding. I asked to speak to the police officer that was witness to this, who then verified what the ticket agent had stated. Based on this, I then decided to end boarding to this passenger on future AA flights. Later, I received a call from the AA ticket agent at BWI and was asked to talk to this Secret Service Agent. I then heard the Secret Service Agent’s side of the story. He admitted to not properly filling out the paperwork for carrying a weapon; not once, but twice. He also admitted to losing his temper with the Captain because he was asked for his ID five separate times. When he asked why he was denied future boarding, I explained that I could not expose AA crews or passengers to abuse. He said he was being discriminated against, wanted my bosses [sic] name, and threatened that he would have my job. He was going to take this to the highest authority. I asked for his superior’s name and contacted him. I explained the situation to the superior. He confirmed that this man did work for the Secret Service, and would contact him. A short time later the agent’s superior called back and said that he was sorry for losing his temper and would like to travel out of DCA the next day. He then stated that the agent was of Middle Eastern descent. I explained to the superior that I did not know this and that there was no discrimination in the denied boarding process with SOC. I was 1,000 miles away from the situation and handled it as we would for any unruly passenger. We agreed the agent could travel the next day. SOC Center Manager – American Airlines
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