Neuroscientist forced off plane
11/14/01
JULIE SULLIVAN
The Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting is the largest of its kind, drawing 25,000 of the world's brain biologists. Among them, Thanos Tzounopoulos of Portland who in a black suit, got to the airport two hours early Sunday to travel.
The neuroscientist and assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University checked in, used the restroom, called his wife twice and then sat in Portland International Airport reading scientific papers for more than an hour until Flight 572 to San Diego was called.
He was in Seat 19C, the meeting agenda on his lap, awaiting the 2:41 p.m. takeoff when a ground-based Alaska Airlines employee boarded and asked him to step outside.
You cannot fly, he was told, because a passenger had complained that his behavior was strange.
"Are you serious?" asked Tzounopoulos. He had a panel of international colleagues to meet with that evening.
Instead, the former Fulbright scholar who had flown up to 50 trips a year in recent years on Alaska Airlines, was told to collect his things. As other passengers watched, he walked back down the aisle, got his carry-on bag and the research he was to deliver on the molecular mechanisms of memory and learning. Then Tzounopoulos -- a native of Greece and a permanent U.S. resident who has lived in Portland nine years -- left the plane.
New rules of engagement have emerged at airports since Sept. 11 in a new front line between passengers and pilots. Nationwide, more than 20 passengers have been removed from flights or stopped from boarding because of complaints from other passengers about their appearances or behavior. Far more incidents have been tallied informally, say Arab American organizations and airline employees.
On Sunday, according to a signed report prepared by an Alaska Airlines supervisor, Tzounopoulos was removed from the flight after an unnamed passenger told a flight attendant that the 32-year-old researcher was "acting strange" and the flight attendant observed that he appeared "very nervous" and "seemed uncomfortable." Full Story: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/100574253426924100.xml
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