I read a story about an e-mail describing a “dry run for terrorists” that delayed AirTran Flight 297 on Nov. 17, and the first thing that came to my mind was, “Is Tedd Petruna trying to land a spot on a reality TV show or something?”
Honestly, who can tell any more? First we have balloon boy and his nutso parents in October and the White House crashers a month later. Both of the “guilty” parties in these incidents did what they did to get on reality TV shows.
Tedd Petruna was on an AirTran flight Nov. 17 from Atlanta to Houston, and as it was getting ready to take off, he says a group of “Muslim men” were being disruptive, not heeding cabin crew instructions to turn off electronic devices, and generally causing a ruckus. Tedd claims that he and another tall Texan took matters into their own hands and manhandled those guys off the plane, more or less. Ummm, uh huh. The men were taken off the plane and after a while, let back on, with officials saying they posed no security threat. Tedd was so incensed that he blasted out an e-mail that has since gone viral.
AirTran disputes practically every part of Mr. Petruna’s account of the incident. The carrier refuted the e-mail on its internal Web site, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.
So what makes me think that Tedd wants to be a TV star is that at this point in time, he can’t comment on the incident or the e-mail for “personal and financial reasons” but he’s glad it got out. Interesting.
Something that bothers me from AirTran’s side of it: that the AirTran crews were swapped. If there’s no problem, why switch crews? Maybe it’s the same reason they asked if any of the passengers wanted to get off and wait for another plane. Tedd and 11 other people took AirTran up on the offer.
I’m certainly not minimizing that this may have been a scary situation for the passengers and crew on that flight, but it seems a little alarmist to say that the sky is falling because some “Muslim men” — by the way, no one actually knows the religious preference or ethnicity of the men in question — won’t switch off their iPhones, BlackBerries, or whatever.
Between AirTran’s spin doctoring and Mr. Petruna’s e-mail, it’s hard to know what really happened, and it’s even harder to discern Mr. Petruna’s motives in sending out a mass e-mail. But we’ll all know the truth if we see Tedd on the next cycle of Survivor!
i noticed that Ted Petruna is a NASA employee, fm his e-mail address. if that’s the case (and the flt Was fm ATL to HOU) i tend to believe he is not someone living on the margins of civilization like the typical publicity hound.
also, the actions of the TSA, airline, and media seem predictable IMHO. are we expected to put up with this crap? if a different group of folks were pulling some stuff like this in the name of Catholicism or Baptistism (?) i can only imagine the reaction
I just received this email today from a friend’s mother who usually sends me things like this to debunk them. Looks like Petruna wasn’t even on the flight!
Here’s the Snopes article if you’re interested.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/flight297.asp
Turns out that this guy wasn’t even on the flight or even in the state. He missed his connecting flight to Atlanta and couldn’t have been on the flight.
Don’t take my work for it. Read it right on the airline’s web page: http://www.insideairtran.com/?p=2200
i believe petruna
whoever you are you watch too much tv and have been dulled by it
bet you put in at least 6 hours a day you dummy
I think this article is behind the times. Check out what the AJC just released. http://www.ajc.com/business/airtran-hero-wasn-t-226517.html
Tedd was never on flt 297.
Regarding “reasons” for sending this out as a mass e-mail, did it ever occur to you that if this were a coverup by the airline for publicity or political correctness reasons, that maybe this was the only way to be sure the story would get out? He makes a good point, which you omitted, about them viewing porn on one of the electronic devices, which supposedly is only done BEFORE a suicide mission, as in 9-11, when some of the terrorists were said to have visited a strip club the night before.
I concede that this might be bogus, but I also think it is deserving of consideration as a possibility.
Of course the Airline is going to say the Man wasn’t on the flight, they need to in order to discredit him. There are too many inconsistencies in the Airlines version. I believe the NASA employee’s version is more creditable, and don’t be surprised if he suffers back lash like forced retirement.
The rightwing conspiracy folks are so funny.
The man “used” an email address that seemed to be assigned to NASA. Does not mean he is a NASA employee. I used to send emails through a mis-configured server at the RNC. So what?
Low cost Airtran using ten crew members on a 737? Not likely or even credible as with most crews, flight and cabin would be five or, at most, six.
Until you know the duty day limitations the crew was operating under, it is foolhardy to presume suspicions to a crew change.
I would challenge the original poster to produce his boarding pass or some proof he flew.
Oh, and the “porn thing” has been discredited time and again, yet, like a zombie, reflects the lack of intelligence of the person attempting to resurrect such, much less the zombit.
Heck, I heard the dude made the entire thing up just to “prove” to his significant other that he was indeed not sleeping with the person next door.
Wow, Jenni the airline blogging genius, isn’t she something?! The stupidity & ignorance in her incredibly poor choice of words, “….but it seems a little alarmist to say the sky is falling because some ‘Muslim men’….won’t switch off their iPhones, Blackberries, or whatever.” What an insensitive, air-headed ditz! Did she actually use those words, “the sky is falling”, and “Muslim men” in the same sentence, about this particular subject? Need we remind genius Jenni that on Sept. 11th, 2001, that is EXACTLY what happened, a group of young “Muslim men” had things (like Jumbo jets & The TWIN TOWERS) falling from the sky!
Those cowardly terrorists succeeded on 3 out 4 aircraft that day with much less than the AirTran 11 or 12 “Muslim men” that were, “….generally causing a ruckus.” So let’s just listen to Jenni explain to all of the family & friends of the 3000 innocent 9/11 victims, how the AirTran passengers on flight 297 were being “alarmist”.
Wake-up Jenni! Muslim Extremist Terrorists will continue to exploit the “Political Correctness” movement in order to kill as many innocents as possible. There were no Methodists, Catholics, or Baptists flying those planes into buildings that day.