Seeking to quell an uproar over alleged profiling, Northwest Airlines offered an apology to a group of 40 American Muslims who were barred from boarding a U.S.-bound plane in Germany.
The airline said Wednesday it will reimburse the passengers for hotel costs and other flights they were forced to take on their way back from the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Andrea Newman, senior vice president for government relations for Northwest Airlines Corp., said the Jan. 7 incident resulted from a series of mistakes involving a German travel agency, the baggage handlers for the previous chartered flight from Saudi Arabia and misleading information on a printed ticket that the passengers had received, The Detroit News reported Wednesday on its Web site.
Newman said she will look into why the connecting flight from Frankfurt, Germany, was not held at the gate until the passengers were cleared for boarding.
Northwest originally said the pilgrims arrived only 20 minutes before the Michigan-bound flight was scheduled to depart, which is outside airline and international rules regarding overseas flights. But the pilgrims said they arrived at least 90 minutes before departure - well within the regulations.
Newman said she will travel to the Detroit area on Friday to meet with the pilgrims, including Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini, the clergyman at the Islamic Center of America.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement the group welcomes the airline's apology and offer "as a positive step toward addressing the concerns of the Muslim passengers."
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