http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_162-57326747/pilot-stuck-in-bathroom-security-scare-flushed/ Looks like he picked the wrong week to quit Xanax!
Idiot racists assuming that just because someone has a foreign accent, they must be a terrorist. I hope they said sorry to the poor man who was simply trying to help.
Put yourself in the co-pilots position. He has someone with a thick foreign accent trying to force entry to the cockpit. In light of past occurences what logical conclusion would you come to bearing in mind that you have the safety of your passengers and crew to consider? He did exactly the right thing and he definitely is not a "racist."
I think the issue is the implication that if the passenger didn't have a "foreign accent", he wouldn't have been perceived as a threat. I think it'd be unfair to condemn the pilot himself, who was speaking in a high pressure situation, but here and now we can recognise the flaw in his instinct. After all, the facts of the case demonstrate (as if it were necessary) that someone having a "foreign accent" doesn't make them a terrorist and equally, someone having an American accent doesn't mean they're not.
My younger brother has flown for United for 22 years. I can assure you that anyone trying to enter the cockpit, regardless of accent, is immediately perceived as a potential threat.
As it should be and I never suggested otherwise. As I said, we can't condemn the pilot acting in the heat of the moment. That said, we need to recognise the instinctive discrimination we're all guilty off sometimes, making subconscious judgements about people on the basis of race, nationality or, as in this case, accent. I'm not saying the pilot would have let someone with an American accent in to the cabin for a friendly chat but he may have not been as quick to raise the alarm, pausing long enough to work out what was really happening. We've never going to eliminate this kind of discrimination but we do need to recognise it exists in all of us and do the best we can to minimise and account for it.
