Thrown off flight for 'bomb' claim

TASIQ Ali, Shabab Niaz, Nabeal Iqbal and Hammad Ahmed were thrown off the flight

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FOUR mates were thrown off a holiday flight to Turkey after they were accused of repeatedly playing a 'bomb' track on a phone during the flight.

The pals, from Oldham, strenuously deny allegations they were "extremely disruptive" and insist they were targeted because they are "bearded Asians".

The drama unfolded after their Thomas Cook Airlines flight from Manchester Airport landed at Dalaman in Turkey on Saturday, September 24.

The crew ordered passengers to sit back in their seats after the jet had arrived at the terminal and four heavily armed Turkish police officers boarded the aircraft and removed Nabeal Iqbal, 19, Hammad Ahmed, 21, both dentistry students, warehouse manager Shabad Niaz, 23, and A-level student Tasiq Ali, 18.

The airline claims the four had been "extremely disruptive throughout this flight" and that one of them upset other passengers by repeatedly playing an audio track on a mobile in which the word 'bomb' was used several times.

Nabeal denied they played a 'bomb' track, and insisted their mobile phones would have required a wi-fi connection to play such a track.

He said: "At the front, the cabin crew manager accused us of saying the word 'bomb' and taking a bag with a bomb into the toilet and leaving it there.

"We know we didn't say bomb and we didn't have a bomb. I would never say anything like that on an aeroplane. It's always in the news, people getting escorted off planes after 9/11. It's best not to joke about anything like that. I just don't think we were treated fairly at all."

He added: "You could say we were a bit loud. We were having a laugh and joke with people around us."

He said the four mates had been thrown off simply because "we are bearded Asians".

Another passenger, Pamela Clarke, 55, from Sheffield, who was sitting six rows away, said: "I never heard anything about bombs. There was no bad behaviour or anything like that from them."

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook Airlines said "Four individuals were extremely disruptive throughout this flight and were refused carriage on the basis of their abusive behaviour."

The four pals were eventually released by police after refusing to pay a £60 'bribe' or sign a statement in Turkish which they didn't understand.

They continued their holiday at Club Anastasia hotel in Marmaris where they say they tried and failed to contact Thomas Cook Airlines to check whether they would be welcome on the return flight. They called Teletext Holidays who had booked the package for them and were assured they would be welcome on the return flight, according to Nabeal.

But when the four turned up at Dalaman Airport on Friday, September 30, they were turned away again by airline officials and had to sleep the night on the beach.

They had to pay £125 to get a flight back.