Citation :
Below are just a few of the greatest hits of Passenger Vigilantism, as seen since the terrorist attacks of 2001:
* 2002: U.S. military fighters were scrambled when a group of karaoke singers were seen chatting excitedly and pointing at the Manhattan skyline through the windows of an Air-India 747.
* 2004: A Canadian-Pakistani man was removed from a plane in Denver because a flight attendant reasoned he "looked like a wanted terrorist."
* 2004: Rumors of terrorist "dry run" rehearsals roar across the Web after passengers witness "suspicious behavior" by a group of traveling musicians from Syria onboard a Northwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles.
* 2006: Architect Raed Jarrar was removed from a JetBlue flight after refusing to remove a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "We Will Not Be Silenced" in English and Arabic. (Jarrar was later awarded $240,000 in a settlement with TSA and JetBlue.)
* 2006: A Mumbai-bound Northwest Airlines flight returned to Amsterdam under cover of the Dutch air force fighters when passengers became concerned over a boisterous group of Muslim passengers returning from a trade fair.
* 2006: A United Airlines flight en route between London and Washington was intercepted by F-15 fighters when a 59-year-old female passenger became unruly and urinated on the cabin floor. After diverting to Boston, the aircraft was evacuated on the runway and passengers were delayed several hours while canine units inspected hundreds of checked suitcases.
* 2006: A Delta jet made an emergency landing in San Antonio, Texas, because -- brace yourselves -- a passenger spent an unusual amount of time in the lavatory. The man, a resident of San Antonio, was detained and questioned, including a physical search of his home, before the FBI pronounced him "not suspicious at all."
* 2006: An American Airlines flight made an emergency stop in Tampa, Fla., after the cabin crew discovered two lavatories with locked doors -- and apparently nobody inside them. Police and TSA officials unlocked the doors and found the bathrooms ... empty. (Mind you, locked lavatory doors can be easily opened from the outside, if need be.)
* 2008: Nine Muslim passengers headed for a vacation in Florida were kicked off an AirTran flight in Washington, D.C. The nine, eight of whom were Americans, including several women and children, had roused suspicion by talking about the location of emergency exits and discussing which were the safest seats.
And my favorite of all....
* In 2004, a United Airlines 747 jettisoned thousands of gallons of jet fuel over the Pacific and returned to Australia after a discarded airsickness bag was discovered in a lavatory with the letters "BOB" written across it. What, you ask, is so nefarious about the letters "BOB," from the perspective of a crew member who might find such a message? Don't ask me. United, though, for reasons that defy precedent or explanation, took the letters to mean bomb on board, and went all the way back to Sydney. Because, as we know, terrorists are apt to advertise the detonation of an explosive device ahead of time by means of a cryptic acronym scrawled on a barf bag.
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