Written by Taelor Aebi
Last week a personal email detailing the events surrounding AirTran Flight 297 went viral, setting off a national controversy.
The email was written by NASA diver Tedd Petruna who recounted his experience aboard the November 17th AirTran flight. Petruna claims that the flight from Atlanta to Houston was delayed nearly 6 hours due to a group of muslim passengers who were causing problems.According to Petruna’s account, 12 muslim passengers were removed from the plane after 2 of them refused to turn off their cell phones before takeoff. Petruna says the 12 were allowed to return after being checked by airport security. He adds that after the men were allowed to return, the crew and several passengers demanded to board a different plane.Petruna sent the email to close friend Gene Hackemack, never expecting it to reach such a wide audience. After receiving the email, Hackemack forwarded it to his friends, causing the email to eventually reach nation-wide status.After student journalist Katie Culp tried to contact Hackemack, he replied in an email saying that he never expected for his email to get so much attention.”I was just trying to warn a few friends of mine who fly frequently,” Hackemack said. “I had absolutely no idea that this email would travel so far and wide, but now I am glad that it did. I put my own safety on the line by including my personal information, but it was the only way to give this message credibility.”In the email Hackemack adds that “There are several articles out there trying to discredit us – please remember, Mr. Petruna has his flight schedule to prove he was aboard the flight.”But according to AirTran, Tedd Petruna never boarded Flight 297. According to a statement on AirTran’s website, Petruna was on Flight 205 from Canton, Ohio that didn’t land in Atlanta until 26 minutes after Flight 297 left the airport.AirTran released it’s own story of what happened on Flight 297. According to AirTran, the incident happened when one passenger, who didn’t speak English, refused to put away his cell phone. The passenger and his interpreter were asked to de-plane, where they were met by TSA agents and were eventually allowed to reboard. You can read AirTran’s full storyhere.AirTran does admit in a question and answer section that the party consisted of 13 men, but whether or not those men exited the plane too is not addressed. AirTran also admits that 12 passengers on the flight opted not to take the plane and asked to be re-booked.This story continues to grow and appears on several blogs across the internet. Snopes.com even picked up the story, but failed to determine what exactly happened.To read the story on Snopes.com and see the full email detailing Tedd Petruna’s story, clickhere.
