No threat found on delayed United flight at LAX

[KrishnaM]

also reported on 9 news last night that the man in question was arabic..

I wonder what they would have done had it been a white person..

[Andrew P]

stupid question, off-course they wound not have, it called paranoia

[Mike Scott]

All, depending on where the aircraft was (either on an active taxiway or positioning onto the active runway)nobody (regardless of race/color/or religion) is allowed to be out of their seat. Not only is it unsafe for the party involved it is a FAA (FAR) violation requiring the flight attendants to issue an immeadiate directive to remain in the seat. Should that directive not be followed they contact the cockpit and we are "REQUIRED" to either stop or exit the active until the situation is resolved. Such activity triggers an ATC response which in turn triggers a security response. LAX (and SFO) are large and busy airports and its not unusual for up to a dozen aircraft to be in line for departure...so any onboard activity requiring us to deviate from normal proceedure can impact everyone behind us which in turn can affect arriving aircrft depending on which runways/taxiways are in play.

The additional factor possibly in play (if it was a non english speaker)maybe simply the person didnt understand what was being said...no negative intention intended...the FA's repeat the PA request to resume the seat...non compliance requires them to act and the aircrft to return to the gate. Person involved would/could be charged with failing to obey directions of crew or the more serious chrge of interfering with flight crew. Either one isnt good but would probably dismissed in case of language/no ill intent situation.

The media are not relaible sources of information..they know nothing about aviation related matters or proceedures. They are however very good at hyping anything so that it either makes people watch tv or buy newspapers.

Regards

MS