Terror on plane
A BUSINESSMAN from Wakefield was caught up in 9/11 panic on a flight from Cyprus when two Muslim passengers were arrested for suspicious behaviour.
Paul Teasdale said chaos erupted when the two men were hauled off by police in Larnaca on Sunday – the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The 38-year-old, who runs his own electrics business, said the flight was minutes away from leaving when the incident happened.
He said: “We noticed two men in full Muslim dress get on the plane and one of them passed me to go to the toilet.
“He was in there for a while and eventually the stewardess knocked on the door to find out what he was doing. He told her he was praying.
“He then sat back down, but she must have smelt a rat because about 10 minutes later two policemen came on board to take them off. After that it was just pandemonium.”
Mr Teasdale, of Wood Lane, Overton, said after the men were removed some passengers refused to stay on board.
He added: “Women were crying and everyone was getting a bit excited. Then someone said ‘hang on a minute, it’s 9/11’. It sounds stupid now, but at the time we were thinking of our lives.”
Three or four people walked off the plane before everyone was asked to disembark, he said.
Flight operator Excel Airways paid for the passengers to spend a night in a hotel in Nicosia while safety checks were carried out. The flight, bound for Manchester, left the following day.
Mr Teasdale said: “The stewardess told me it was the same plane, but asked me to keep it to myself because it could have caused mayhem.”
Sue Lister, spokeswoman for Excel Airways, said the men were taken off the plane as they were acting “anti-socially”. She said: “One of the men ran down to the rear toilet, one to the front. They locked themselves in and were banging on the walls. It was not normal behaviour. The decision was taken to offload them and the captain made the decision to delay the flight.”
Their ethnicity was not a factor, she said. She added: “Hopefully the passengers realise the reason for the decision.”
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Weather for Wakefield
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
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Cloudy
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