Farsi Handwriting -- On In-Flight Magazine -- Forces Flight Cancellation

Okay, maybe we're a bit over-tweaked here.

A Midwest Airlines flight from Milwaukee to San Francisco was canceled Sunday night after a passenger, casually flipping through an in-flight magazine found in the seatback pocket before him, spotted what looked like Arabic handwriting among the pages.

The aircraft, with 123 people on board, had already left the gate and was taxiing for take-off when the passenger notified a cabin crew member of the discovery. The flight crew turned right around and headed back to the gate.

The aircraft, everyone and everything on board was searched. Nothing was found. The 118 passengers were put up at local hotels.

Of course, the handwritten passage was thoroughly analyzed. In the end, Midwest spokeswoman Carol Skornicka said the writing was something like a prayer, "something of a contemplative nature."

Skornicka defended the flight crew's decision to return to the gate. "Whenever there's anything that anybody asks a question about, no one wants to take any chances," she said.

But Janan Najeeb, director of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition, told local reporters the airline overreacted. "This is really unfortunate, and I think it's just basically a result of what's been happening nationally. When you have individuals who can't read a foreign language and assume some scribbles on something is a terrorist message, there's something clearly wrong with the direction the country is going."

FMI: www.tsa.gov