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A media figure and founder of Muslim Girl who ran for New Jersey's 6th congressional district was arrested Saturday and taken off a flight at Newark Airport after she said she was wrongly singled out during an incident with a white male passenger, according to an airline spokesperson.
Amani al-Khatahtbeh, 28, was escorted off American Airlines flight 2029 at about 9:55 a.m., just as the Charlotte, North Carolina-bound flight was slated to depart. Passengers were temporarily deboarded, according to Andrew Trull, an American Airlines spokesperson.
Al-Khatahtbeh said in her video the confrontation with the man began while she was taking off her shoes at the TSA checkpoint inside the airport. The man, she claimed, "forced himself in front of me, [said] 'I'm first class, I'm pre-check,' and because I recorded the entire thing, he complained to the captain I was harassing him."
Al-Khatahtbeh said she told the man he could "wait like everybody else," but he instead "ran" through the machine and was not stopped by an employee. Instead, she was told to "cut it out," she said.
Trull, in additional details provided Saturday evening, said both PreCheck and non-PreCheck screening at the airport was consolidated into one open lane.
"Our understanding is that Ms. Al-Khatahtbeh believed the other passenger, who is enrolled in PreCheck, was getting favorable treatment because he was allowed to proceed through security while she was removing her shoes," Trull said.
Trull said the verbal altercation between the two continued through the terminal and on the plane, where al-Khatahtbeh "confronted the passenger and began filming him before taking her seat."
She was told he’s a first-class passenger, and she still went ahead to harass him at boarding and while he was in his seat. That's why she was removed.