American Airlines Sent to Timeout While Accused Terrorist Reaps the Benefits
American Airline Captain John Ehlers stated that 3 men were acting suspicious and making inappropriate comments while in the boarding area as well as on board the plane. Cerqueira and the other 2 men were escorted from the plane and Cerqueira was detained and questioned for 2 hours. Afterwards, the police cleared Cerqueira but American Airlines refused to allow him on any of their planes. Apparently Cerqueira lives in Miami and was trying to return home on the initial flight, but instead was detained and then not allowed to fly with the original carrier. He had been visiting family in Massachusetts over the holidays and was simply trying to return home to southern Florida. Cerqueira, a Stanford graduate, stated that he had been racially profiled to be an Arab man instead of a man of Portuguese decent. He stated that a trooper had told him "You're just the poor chap who got seated next to these two other guys."
The jury awarded Cerqueira a total of $400,000 because of this "incident". After only a 6-day trial, he was officially awarded $130,000 compensatory damages and $270,000 in punitive damages. Cerqueira told the Boston Globe, "I felt like I was being treated like a terrorist and there was no way I could prove I didn't do anything or say anything at all. I'm grateful to the jury for sending the message to American Airlines that just the use of the word security isn't an excuse for unlawful behavior." He went on to say, "I do realize September 11th weighs hard on our consciences and everyone is interested in better and safe than sorry, but if they had just put me on another plane, none of this would have happened." Because the flight contained people that needed to be detained due to suspicious behavior, American Airlines also removed all others and re-checked all baggage, thus delaying the flight and costing the carrier money from the beginning.
However, American Airlines and the Pilots Association are both up in arms over the verdict in this case. Pete Janhunen, a spokesman of the Airline Pilot Association, stated "The pilot in command is responsible for everything that happens involving that flight. We need to ensure that the authority of the Captain is protected so that they're never intimidated or afraid to make the right call." Even though there has not been an official statement released from American Airlines about the specifics of the case, they have hinted that this will probably not be the final decision. They will be evaluating all of their legal options and quite possibly file an appeal.
*Sources*
-The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/16/jury_awards_airline_passenger_400000/, Shelly Murphy, 2007 January 16.
-The Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=177368, Laurel Sweet, Article #2, 2007 January 16.
-The Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=177181, Laurel Sweet, Article #1, 2007 January 15.
-Aero News Network, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=7c9780b7-b8ab-4575-a1db-78d2c94e37a0, 2007 January 16.
Published by Miss Faith
Miss Faith is a full time student and she is currently working with About.com as the Guide to Makeup. She has finished her Bachelor's Degree in Intelligence Studies, as well as an Associate's Degree in CIS/N... View profile
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- John Cerqueira was awarded $400,000 in damages by a federal jury in Boston.
- Cerqueira was supposedly racially profiled and thought to be of Arab decent.
- American Airlines refused to allowe him to board another plane, even after he was cleared by law enforcement.
19 Comments
Post a CommentMr.Cerqueira is a white European that was born in Portugal.
Judy>> I have a geography background and the figure I remembered for Albania was 90% muslim. However, for accuracy sake, i checked the ol' "cia factbook" which says Albania is 70% muslim, while a Saudi website says 80%. Whatever, I just know that it's generally considered the only predom. islamic state in Europe. (Personally I only know one Albanian and she is Christian) And what do I look like? Haha! Are you flirting with me? j/k
PTLeena: I saw a black muslim suicide bomber from Mindanao (tieing in with Oliver Hazard's geography lesson here) arrested at Manila airport in 1987..they were frisking all passengers way back then and found pipe bombs duct-taped to his legs. I'm white and was detained for 2 hours at Ft. Lauderdale airport last year because I must wear a leg brace.(P.S.-missed my flight, but I didn't sue)My husband is Mexican and was detained at Las Vegas for security measures (he didn't sue either) Plus, I was FOR increased security. Re-read my first comment.
Here's the funny thing about this story, besides having the police question him...if he wasn't making comments with the other 2 men, why didn't a fellow passenger take up for him and say he wasn't causing any problems? Maybe there were and it wasn't reported anywhere, who knows. It just seemed odd to me, not saying he's a terrorist but he had to have been doing something for nobody to take his side before being taken off the plane.
SS - Yah, I guess it makes him seem a little guilty, but he was "accused" as being a "possible" terrorist. And honestly, who is to say 100% that anyone isn't an actual terrorist after only 2 hours of questioning. They stated the "police" cleared him and a "trooper" had made a comment to him. Where was the DHS or Marshalls? They can't seriously leave REAL questioning up to police and troopers. That's just silly. But what can we do? At least they don't use airport security to question alleged terrorists...that could be the next step though ;)
PS. In the title "..while accused terrorist reaps the benefits.."hmm. makes him sound guilty doesn't it?
I have to jump in here- as a member of the flight crew on one hand and as a potentially terrorist portuguese person to boot-sheesh! There are no simple answers here. We will never get over 911 and there is such a fine line between profiling and being hyper vigilant. Mistakes will surely be made, unfortunately. Should the cash strapped airlines pay for them? Not sure. Perhaps homeland security should pay a portion of these "apologies". (or airline CEOs...?) My AC article about the USair incident addresses some of these topics. Sticky situation to put it mildly-Nice article Miss F.
Great article! I agree that this man should have been offered alternate travel. Other than that, however, the airline and pilot did nothing wrong, in my opinion.
>>"take his ticket and transfer to another airline">> HAHA! "Umm, hey Bob, yeah this guy kinda seems like a terrorist, so let's send him over to Delta..." For the record, Albania may not be in the middle east but it is considered a mostly Islamic country. (over 90%) Also, most muslims are actually not arabic. Indonesia has the greatest muslim population in the world and they are not arabic. Lil' geography lesson... ANyhew, i like the "apology and free flight to europe" solution myself.
Judy - I see your point. Maybe they should have given him options instead of denying him, or at least given him some free vouchers for the future at some point. However, when I was writing this article I was thinking about a show on A&E called "Airline" about Southwest airlines (reality type show). On the show they are allowed to say someone can't fly with them if they believe they drank too much. So why not tell Mr. Cerquiera to take his ticket and transfer it easily to another airline since they felt "uneasy" about him being there? I think companies need more rights than they have. He didn't HAVE TO fly with them. And if I were him, I probably would have wanted another carrier anyway.