Thu, Jan 18, 2007
Could This Be Fallout From $400K Jury Award?
After
40 American Muslims barred from boarding a Michigan-bound Northwest
flight from Germany accused the carrier of profiling, the airline
is now bowing and scraping with apologies and monetary offers to
assuage their outrage.
The group of passengers were traveling back to America following
a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the recently concluded
annual Hajj.
The airline's senior vice president for government relations
Andrea Newman told USA Today the incident resulted from a series of
mistakes. She says there was a mixup between a German travel
agency, the baggage handlers for the charter flight the group had
arrived in Germany aboard and information printed on the tickets
the group had received prior to the flight.
At a Tuesday news conference in Dearborn, the Muslim pilgrims
refuted earlier claims by Northwest they had arrived only 20
minutes prior to boarding. The group maintains they were there at
least 90 minutes beforehand, well within airline and international
rules regarding overseas flights.
Newman says she will travel to Michigan to meet with members of
the group, including a clergyman at the Islamic Center of America,
Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini. She also promises to look into why
the Northwest flight was not held at the gate until the group was
cleared for boarding.
The airline has also offered to reimburse members of the
pilgrimage for hotel costs and other flights they were forced to
take to get home.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said in a written statement, "We
welcome Northwest Airlines' apology and offer of limited
compensation as a positive step toward addressing the concerns of
the Muslim passengers."
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