Cynical Nation

Thanks to everyone for their continued interest in this story. I wish I could report that I've gotten completely to the bottom of it, but alas, that is not the case.

After initially refusing to comment on the incident, British Airways' official position is now that a passenger requested permission to deboard the plane prior to takeoff, and, in accordance with standard operating procedure, a police officer was sent aboard to escort the passenger off the aircraft.

The problem is that this account seems at odds with both eyewitness testimony as well as the account given by the flight's pilot. My eyewitness saw three police officers board the plane, directed by a flight attendant. These include two heavily armed "S.W.A.T."-style officers as well as a standard, bobby-type cop, also armed. The three policemen entered the cabin with guns drawn and pointed. Two individuals were removed from the plane, and the police then began a thorough search of the lavatories and the rest of the cabin, while the other passengers deplaned.

It's difficult to imagine a scene such as this one transpiring in today's hypersensitive and "profiling"-phobic West, simply because a passenger requested permission to leave the flight. Moreover, recall that in 2003, Tony Blair deployed the military to prevent an attack at Heathrow Airport which he believed imminent, based on intelligence from MI5. Blair was savaged by the British press, and accused of using the "politics of fear" to manipulate public opinion in support of the war in Iraq. Given such recent history, it is doubtful the British government would be engaging in such theatrics unless they were thought absolutely necessary.

Still, the biggest discrepancy comes from the flight's pilot himself. Five hours after its scheduled departure, Flight 0215 left Heathrow with the same flight crew, but aboard a different aircraft. The pilot then announced that he himself had made the call to have the men removed from the flight after the crew had observed them behaving suspiciously. This directly contradicts BA's assertion that the request to deplane originated with the passengers themselves.

Granted, it's still possible that there was nothing more here than an overly cautious flight crew, but it does beg the question of why British Airways feels the need to provide an official account that seems at odds with what actually happened.

In my efforts to get to the bottom of this story, I have solicited help from journalists with much more clout and better credentials than this dumb blog, so with any luck we may eventually get some answers. As I learn them, I will, of course, pass them along.

UPDATE: Thanks to jic for catching the typo.