Ryanair's 'Racist' Comments

Yeh the present system is working at UK airports. Who exactly is O’L to ask for a change when he can’t guarantee the safety of his own passengers by proper gate control.All he ever cares about is his profit margin - not safety and security.

The comments on this thread illustrate how deep and ingrained racial sterotypes are. White people can be Muslim, Muslims can be from any racial background. But this whole thing is a bit of a non-event. The number of attacks on planes is negligible although when one happens the death toll is very high. And many of the attacks are linked to other conflicts en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_attacks
The highest number of deaths in the UK is still those killed in N.Ireland during the conflict. (and those are on both sides through IRA and Loyalist violence.)

Gaga MOL does not need to provide "evidence" to substantiate his comments. He's drawing a sensible parallel from existing evidence of other attacks, pretty much all of which have been undertaken or orchestrated by Muslim men.

Too many to list and would be stating the bleedin' obvious to do so.

oldglimmer1 Too many to list and would be stating the bleedin' obvious to do so.
Really! How many Muslim attacks on airplanes do you imagine there have been? Attacks since 1995

21–22 January 1995 (planned)Bojinka plot (failed)A failed al-Qaeda plot to destroy several airliners over the Pacific Ocean using liquid explosives. The conspirators were discovered before they could carry out the plot.0
22 December 20012001 failed shoe bomb attemptAl-Qaeda operative Richard Reid was subdued by passengers of American Airlines Flight 63, flying from Paris to Miami, after unsuccessfully attempting to detonate plastic explosives concealed in his shoes.0
7 May 2002China Northern Flight 6136A McDonnell Douglas MD-80 nearing its destination of Dalian, China, reported fire in the cabin and requested an emergency landing before crashing. The investigation determined that passenger Zhang Pilin used gasoline to set fire to the cabin after purchasing several life insurance policies. Zhang and most passengers died from carbon monoxide inhalation; none survived the crash.112
24 August 2004Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1353 and Siberia Airlines Flight 1047Two domestic Russian passenger flights departing Moscow, a Tu-134 and a Tu-154 airliner, crashed within minutes of each other, with no survivors. The Siberia Airlines flight broadcast a hijack warning shortly before disappearing from radar. An investigation found traces of RDX high explosive at both crashes, and determined Chechen suicide bombers to be responsible. Chechen separatist Shamil Salmanovich Basayev claimed responsibility.44 and 46
9 August 20062006 transatlantic aircraft plotA failed al-Qaeda terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives on airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada.0
25 December 2009Northwest Airlines Flight 253An Airbus A330 flying from Amsterdam to Detroit was the target of a failed al-Qaeda bombing attempt. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempted to detonate plastic explosives concealed in his underwear.0
29 October 2010Cargo planes bomb plotA failed al-Qaeda plastic-explosive bombing attempt on a UPS and a FedEx cargo plane bound to the United States. The bombs, concealed in packages originating in Yemen, were discovered at stop-overs a result of shared intelligence. It is believed the bombs were intended to be detonated over a US city.[12]0
31 October 2015Metrojet Flight 9268An Airbus A321 flying from Egypt to Saint Petersburg broke-up above the Sinai, killing everyone on board, becoming the deadliest air disaster in Russian history. ISIL claimed responsibility. Russian investigators found explosive residue and Egyptian authorities agreed it was a terrorist act.[13]224
2 February 2016Daallo Airlines Flight 159An Airbus A321 suffered an explosion shortly after taking off from Mogadishu, opening a hole in the fuselage through which the burnt body of the suicide bomber fell. The airliner was able to safely conduct an emergency landing. Militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility.
Please note that a lot of them failed.

11th September 2001 trisher ?

I'm starting to believe that elderly white females are pulled over in security at airports because they make the least fuss, but the searchers still make their quota of people searched.
I know I'm being cynical.

elderly


Ok, so I'm getting on a bit!

Apart from the obvious racist overtones I question his logic on at least two grounds:

1. When he mentions Muslim men he is obviously referring to those with brown skin. In a recent report of someone convicted of wanting to carry out a terrorist attack the perpetrator was a white female convert born in the UK

2. Fast tracking families with small children ignores the fact that many terrorists have strapped bombs to children and sent them to their deaths

Security at airports may be annoying (I have myself been taken to one side - I forgot to take my kindle out of my carry on!) but they are there to keep us safe and I would trust the airport security teams before Mr. O'Leary

Families with children and disabled are always in my experience allowed to board planes first but they will still have had to wait their turn getting through security and all will be checked through the body scanner.

Were you ladies wearing items of jewellery which have a lot of metal in them? The only time I was set the alarms off was at Bristol airport and had the pat down etc I was wearing a necklace with a large metal thingy on the front. Have never done that since as it was agreed that it was the likely culprit.

Surely it's common sense to profile single Muslim men. Also drunk or scruffy men or anyone else they think might pose a risk.

Callistemon I thought we were discussing bombs on aircraft not hi-jackers. Completely different scenario. The US uses air marshals on flights but I couldn't see Ryan air coughing up for that!

Hi jackers, bombs on aircraft - same difference. The talk is about aircraft safety and MO singling out muslim men not specifically bombs on aircraft a la Lockerbie.

oldgimmer and yehbut I agree with you.
In the rush to be ‘woke’ we must not forget the fact that most bombings and attacks now, in airports/planes / anywhere else
Classed as terror related ( as opposed to crime) are carried out by Muslims.It’s a simple fact.

So how do you select people who are potential hi-jackers? And actually the number of successful bombs on aircraft is minimal. Which makes you wonder what on earth is going on. Still it's a really good way of controlling crowds at airports.

Oh, I thought it was in general.
In fact the list goes back years and all types of people have been involved.

And at the risk of sounding sexist, far more men than women involved.

Welshwife not much jewellery, no, probably just a watch and a ring.

First of all, "muslim" isn't a race. That said, the comments by O'Leary were, I think, deliberately provocative.

I've been trying to think how (or if) one actually could tell of 'terrorist intent' or the risk thereof say, hypothetically, by the glint in a person's eye, whether it would be ethical to target people with the glint (i.e. pull out and check over more thoroughly than those without that glint). I think it would be ethical in the same way as we target disease risks with vaccinations, or putting people with high risks of other medical complications (heart disease, stroke, etc) on medication to reduce their risk.

What I'm arguing is that approaching terrorism risk using mathematical probability, based on up-to-date information, would not, I think, be unethical—always providing such a method could be devised.

I think O'Leary's point was that, as he understands it, the greatest risk of terrorist offences at the moment comes from extreme Islamists and so, statistically speaking, from his point of view, it would make sense to check more in that demographic than others.

Admittedly, such an approach doesn't look good and it's hard to see how, even if it were probabilistically targetted, most people could be persuaded of its 'fairness'.

And at the risk of sounding sexist, far more men than women involved.

It's not sexist to tell the truth.

But someone may accuse me of misandry!

One has to be so careful on GN.

Why is a single Muslim man likely to be threat?

A hi jacker would need to have the means to carry out a hijack. ie knives, scissors, anything sharp which could be used as a weapon. That’s what all the searching is about. Surely nobody disputes the fact that all this removing of clothing, shoes, xray scanners etc. is down to muslim extremists?

And what if he is a white Muslim? Plenty of them around.
How would you even know he WAS Muslim?

scruffy men are a risk? Really?