http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/15/muslim-woman-escorted-southwest-flight/SAN DIEGO — A local Islamic advocacy group is calling for an apology from Southwest Airlines after a San Diego Muslim woman wearing a head scarf was escorted off a flight bound for San Jose over the weekend.
For the record,
The story has been changed to say that the woman is a student at San Jose State University, not San Diego State University as previously reported.
The woman, a graduate student at San Jose State University, was on the 8:15 a.m. Sunday flight to fly to San Jose, where she is doing scholarly research, said Edgar Hopida, spokesman for the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
A Southwest crew member reportedly described the woman as suspicious. Little explanation was given for the woman’s removal, except a statement by a flight attendant claiming she heard the woman say, “It’s a go,” during a cell phone conversation before takeoff, Hopida said.
The woman, whose name was not made public Tuesday, claims she actually said, “I’ve got to go.”
Hopida said once she was removed, federal Transportation Security Administration officers did not search the woman or her luggage and didn’t question her in an interview room. Instead, they led her to a Southwest ticket counter and she left on the next flight to San Jose.
Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz said Tuesday it was too early to comment on the specific allegations. “We’re in the process of collecting the facts and researching this situation,” he said.
A local TSA spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
“The TSA agents took her off but didn’t give her further security scrutiny,” Hopida said. “We believe the suspicious allegations were due to her being a Muslim woman of South Asian descent wearing a head scarf.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is asking for Southwest to investigate the incident and to apologize to the woman, who is expected to give a statement and further details at a news conference Wednesday.
Topic: Muslim woman escorted off Southwest flight (Read 375 times)