Passenger mistakes math equations for 'terrorist code,' gets economics professor escorted off flight
An Ivy League economist was pulled off an American Airlines regional jet from Philadelphia to Syracuse after a fellow passenger incorrectly identified the mathematical equations he was scrawling for foreign script, and suspected him of terrorism.
An unidentified woman sitting next to him tried to strike up a conversation with her seatmate, Guido Menzio, as they waited for American American Airline Flight 3950 to take off.
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However, Menzio wasn't interested in chatting with the woman. He was giving his full attention to writing "cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didn’t recognize" according to a story published by the Washington Post Saturday morning.
He was writing "cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didn’t recognize."
American Airlines spokesman Casey Norton told the Post that the woman initially handed a crew member a note saying she was feeling "sick," but when she was later escorted off the plane she revealed that she actually wasn't ill at all.
According to the Post, the unidentified woman was scared that her seatmate might be a terrorist because she couldn't identify the foreign script he was writing.
The plane remained on the tarmac for nearly 30 minutes before security personnel removed Menzio from the plane.
During their interrogation, they discovered that Menzio, an Italian associate economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was just writing notes for a paper he is coauthoring on menu costs.
Menzio was actually en route to Syracuse to catch a connecting flight to Ontario, where he was scheduled to present a paper at Queen’s University.
The script the woman didn't recognize was math, specifically a differential equation according to the Post.
After showing the authorities his calculations, he was deemed not a “credible threat” and allowed back on the plane. He told the Post that the pilot seemed a bit embarrassed as Menzio walked back to his seat.
More than two hours after its scheduled departure, the short 41-minute trip in the air finally took off, according to FlightStats.com.
Menzio, 40, also told the Post that though he was “treated respectfully throughout,” he criticized airline protocols that fail to collect sufficient intelligence in instances like this.
“A security protocol that is too rigid — in the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checks — and relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless,” he said.
“What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident, the ethos of [Donald] Trump’s voting base."
In an allegedly deleted Facebook post about the incident Menzio echoes these sentiments:
The woman, still unidentified, did not reboard the plane.
Mashable has reached out to Guido Menzio to comment on this story but have not yet received a response.
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A lover of satirical debate, wine and a good bowl of guac. Originally from Ethiopia, Mariya received a B.A. from Vassar College, where she studied international relations, with a regional focus on the Middle East and concentrations in political science, history and film.
