>Jim,
>
>While I do agree with your position on fear, I think your position in this particular case is not quite right on. This was not the result of one person's fear and their passing a note to a crew member, it started with that action. Then certain people refused to sit in their assigned seats. These people refused to follow the instructions of the crew and of the captain. IMHO, once they chose to break the rules (not sit where they were assigned) and to disobey the crew instructions (Please move to your assigned seats) it was a good decision on the captain's part to have them removed from the plane.
>
>I have no information regarding how that group of people acted on whatever other flight they mayy have boarded subsequently.
>
>I don't know about other countries but in the US it is a federal felony crime to disobey the instructions of the flight crew.

Jim,

I was the first to reply to the OP and my "position" was that if these people were indeed trying to be ejected from the flight they succeeded in that "officials" took the bait.

My challenge has little to do with the specific case cited, and my original reply should make that clear enough. My problem is with this expectation - almost being claimed as a "right" - that being fearful of some passenger should naturally result in the feared passenger being removed from the flight. Without even knowing his accuser too!
To me it is clear as a bell that that is wrong by every imaginable yardstick.

I learned long ago that there are at least 2 sides to every story. In my opinion we have only 1 side represented here, and my read saw some bias in the "reporting".
It's criminal here too to disobey instructions of flight crews. But you don't become a "criminal" until you are found guilty in a court of law.