Frightened Passenger Delays Southwest Flight Out of Midway Airport for 2 Men Speaking Arabic

A Southwest Airlines passenger who was afraid to fly out of Midway Airport because he heard two fellow travelers speaking Arabic to each other persuaded a gate agent to remove the men from the Philadelphia-bound flight.

An incredulous Maher Khalil, 29, who owns a pizza shop in Philadelphia, said airline personnel apologized and told him he and his friend could not board his flight because of one passenger’s fears.

“I didn’t know what to do, so I called the cops,” Khalil told NBC. “We’re American citizens just like everybody else.”

Khalil said he felt humiliated and for the first time unwelcome in his adopted nation. He also said “other people were super nice” and supportive of him and his friend, Anas Ayyad, 28, telling them what the ticket agents were doing was wrong.

Chicago Police officers and TSA agents arrived at the gate Wednesday evening and spoke with Khalil, Ayyad and the Southwest Airlines crew. The men have lived in Philadelphia for 15 years after coming to the United States from Palestine.

Khalil told NBC he bought the pizza shop that gave him his very first job in America, Pizza Point in Feltonville. He and Ayyad were in Chicago visiting family.

The flight was delayed for 10 minutes. After security questioned the men, they were allowed onto the plane.

“If that person doesn’t feel safe,” Khalil told the Southwest employee, “let them take the bus.”

The flight home, however, was not so comfortable as suspicious passengers asked him to open the small box he was carrying.

“People kept asking me, ‘What’s in that box?!’” he told NBC. “So I shared my baklava with them.”

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