Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
An Australian passenger was removed from a flight and detained by the Federal Police allegedly after doodling in a notebook.
Passenger Oliver Buckworth claims he was removed from a Gold Coast bound flight on Tiger Airways after another passenger glanced over his shoulder and complained to the flight crew. The offending text? “TerrorISm ade up,” and “Tyrannosaurus Rex. Terodactyl. Tarantula. Terrorist,” spoken by an image of a child with his hands on his head .
The interior designer also drew a picture of a chandelier.
Mr. Buckworth claims that another passenger glanced at his notebook and told a flight attendant: “Look what he’s writing.” “I turned to him and said, ‘Yes, look what I’m writing. Read the whole sentence. I’m just writing some notes.’ ”
Officials with Tiger Airways then informed the Australian Federal Police who then escorted Buckworth off the plane and detained him for questioning. He was then released after the interview.
He claims the airline “blacklisted” him afterward and stated he believes Tiger Airways acted “ridiculous.” He also stated: “In a land of melting ice-creams, sandy feet and fluffy bears, how could anyone be fearful of terrorism?”
“My concern is what it looked like to the rest of the people on the plane. I did tell them as I was leaving, ‘I’m not a criminal. This man simply took something out of context that I was writing in my book. Just so you know and this whole fear thing isn’t instilled even further.’ ”
The extreme sensitivity by the other passenger and the airline crew could be in part due to increasing terrorism threat levels posted by the federal government along with continual news reports of terrorism related topics. Australian security and police recently broke up a terrorism plot to kidnap and behead a random Australian citizen by a cell linked to the terrorist organization ISIS.
A spokeswoman for Tiger Airways defended the airline’s actions claiming crewmembers were responding to a “disruptive passenger.”
“Tigerair has a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate and antisocial behavior. Safety and security of staff and passengers underpins the operation at all times and is never compromised,” she said.
The airline declined to comment on whether Mr. Buckworth had been expelled from the flight for the contents of his notebook.
Zero tolerance at work once again.
By Darren Smith
Source:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
hmm. Another reason not to fly. Don’t want my doodles to get me banned.
Reblogged this on Oxygen in Use! Smoking is OK! and commented:
Interesting article! Check it out!
Apostates from terrorism should be ________?
Ah yes, saved from the Terrorism of IDEAS – which, after all, to any oppressive government is the real threat is it not?
And Please: “Better Safe than Sorry”?, what a trite excuse for tyranny. Here’s an even better adage, coined by a far better man: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve Neither Liberty nor Safety”.
And when Squeeky pens a witty rhyme, and posts her witty rhyme online, and it’s read by Government’s designated fear mongers, who the next day knock upon her door and ask her quite politely, but no, not optionally, to accompany them for an interview at their offices…
…and no, of course there will be no need for your Attorney, and no they do not know how long it will take; will it still be “better safe than sorry”? – more like we will all be sorry to be kept so “safe”.
I want to hear more about him being blacklisted. That is a real problem if it is true.
Support the cause, terrorism ade up T-Shirts available!
http://teespring.com/terrorismadeup
I’m afraid to say anything. And afraid to draw anything. Just hiw this is soused to make it I guess. I think an artist might soak up impressions around them and just doodle. I like his play on words and maybe he is a white knuckle flier trying to comfort himself. Or maybe like me he hasn’t flown much since ‘that day’ and so the changes at airports got to him?? I don’t understand hiw long someone had to look over his shoulder for all of that ‘fear’. Myself I’m busy hogging the arm rest. Just kidding.
#Squeeky, safe from what pray tell. Your response is more like one might expect from Squeaky Fromme. The “disruptive passenger” was the paranoid starved for attention twerp. The sounds light a flight in a time warp picking passengers from Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 including the paranoid twerp.
Based on your less than rational “thinking” if Stephen King someone were to see some notes he might be scribbling for a new novel, he never be allowed to board another plane, ever.
What better way to get a little more room to stretch in what have become hardly more than flying sardine cans. Southwest Airlines new ad “suggests” that their Boeing 737s a BIG. What BS. They’re no bigger that last year’s model of the same generation – into they crammed another row of seats. The Flight Attendants’ instructions to “bring your seat to its full upright position” is so freaking insulting the response should be an in unison guffaw!
As soon as the airplane reaches its cruising altitude, nitrous oxide should should be pumped into the passenger cabin to soothe the passenger’s discomfiture with its resultant jangled nerves and the disposition of a baby suffering from a combination of colic and diaper rash and being treated with such disdain, bordering on contempt.
In the 1960s, Bob Dylan wrote that “If my thought-dreams could be seen, they’d probably put my head in a guillotine.” He may have been prophetic.
Yeah, Max, that’s what the government wants everyone to do. It doesn’t stop people from expressing their opinions and controversial ideas to those who they trust, though. It’s just not safe to do it in a public place like on an airline.
Be afraid… Be very afraid…
Just don’t think it, write it, or say it.
Mr. Buckworth was right, though: Terror IS made up. Mostly by the government and the media sensationalizing real events to the extent that it is on the minds of everyone everywhere. But statistically, it’s needless. The danger is minute when the number of people and miles travelled is considered. Governments say they are responding to the threats, but those who initiate these events are responding to the government’s actions. And it continues to escalate on and on in an ever worsening spiral. It’s part of the insanity of humanity. And rationality in the minds of “officials” is becoming more scarce all the time. Detaining this guy, and banning him from the airline, is just crazy. The real lesson: Don’t draw sketches of controversial ideas in public. Keep these thoughts to yourself.
I hear ISIS is using that same color of blue ink. So there’s that, too.
Those who write on itShayhouse walls…..
Those are some pretty weird scribblings, though. Better safe than sorry.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter