The Lufthansa Pilots Christmas Miracle

By refusing to follow “illegal” deportation orders, did Lufthansa pilots manage to perform a so-called “Christmas Miracle” in the course of 2017?

By: Ringo Bones 

According to Deutsche Welle – in the course of 2017, German pilots stopped 222 planned flights whose purpose were to repatriate Afghan asylum seekers back to their home country they are fleeing from, Last year, the European Union signed a so-called deal with Kabul – which many saw as “Hitlerian” – to start deporting asylum seekers back to so-called “safe areas” in Afghanistan, which instantly drew criticism from human rights groups such as Pro Asyl. Amnesty International said nearly 10,000 Afghans are at risk of torture, kidnapping and death in their home country. 

The majority of the stopped flights, 85, came from Germany’s main airline Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings. Around 140 refusals occurred at Germany’s largest airport – Frankfurt Airport. Some 40 took place at Dusseldorf Airport where Pro Asyl and other campaigners staged the #WelcomeUnited protest against deportation of asylum seekers. A spokesman for Lufthansa Michael Lamberty, told local Westdeutsche Allegeimeine Zeitung that pilots sometimes had to cancel flights due to security reasons. 

In 2017 so far, Germany had processed more asylum applications to a total of 388, 201 – more than any of the other EU countries concerned, according to the German immigration office Bundesamt fϋr Migration und Flϋchtlinge. About 210,000 of these requests have been rebounded, but they usually are accepted in appeal case. Given that this all happened in the course of 2017 but the news report only came out about 20 days ago, many had labeled the actions of the German pilots refusing such “Hitlerian” deportation orders as a “Christmas Miracle”.

United Airlines: Too Unfriendly To Passengers?

With the latest forcible removal of a passenger incident, is United Airlines getting more “unfriendly” in recent years? 

By: Ringo Bones 

To those old enough to remember the 1970s and the 1980s, United Airlines’ slogan - “Fly the friendly skies” – seems so surreal in the wake of hijacking incidents by PLO affiliated “terrorists”. Fast forward to our pos-9/11 world, it seems that United Airlines is getting more “unfriendly” to the casual, unwary passenger. But is there some truth to this? 

The latest incident of the forcible removal of a Vietnamese-American doctor named David Dao captured by an amateur smartphone camera footage taken by a fellow passenger of the incident has since gone viral a few days ago has resulted in some negative repercussions to the famed airline company when it comes to its existing policy when it comes to overbooked flights – i.e. it’s stocks closed lower a few days ago following the incident. And it also fueled the “liberal conspiracy theory scene” of the rollback of civil liberties enjoyed by non-white Anglo Saxon Americans during the Obama administration giving credence to the concerns that in Donald J. Trump’s America, its going to be a “reckoning day” for non-white Anglo Saxon ethnic groups and hence Dr. David Dao and his legal team stating that his forcible removal incident is much worse than the hardship he endured during the Fall of Saigon during his exodus for political asylum into America. 

Back in 2009, United Airlines got under fire on the shabby treatment of country music star Dave Carroll’s guitars that eventually resulted in United Airlines paying millions of dollars to Carroll to the damage and mental anguish due to the damage of his guitars used in his musical tour at the time. And just last month, a group of female passengers were denied entry because they were wearing supposedly “inappropriate” leggings by United Airlines’ standards.