Young Indian actress, well-known there, is flying on a commercial jet liner with her family, arriving for the first time in New York City. The whole family is excited, waving to each other, pointing out the window, laughing and talking, trading places so each person can see the landmarks of the great city.
Not noticing the two F-16s that are suddenly flying escort.
Not noticing anything’s wrong, in fact, until they land — and are hauled off by the police for questioning. For four hours.
Seems one of the passengers saw these folks excitedly talking about their impending arrival at the World’s Greatest City. More to the point, they saw some swarthy-skinned types moving around, making hand signals, pointing at landmarks, jabbering in some foreign tongue, and plotting Who Knows What Sort of Heathen Terror. Terrified, the passenger informed the flight attendants who, excercising their keen judgment, informed the pilots, who hit the panic button.
The actress, Samyuktha Verma, is as friendly and understanding of the situation as can be — though she denies that anyone was passing notes back and forth (“We didn’t do that. Why would we need to pass notes when we already speak a language no one else on the plane could understand?”).
She says the police were very pleasant, and were quickly convinced that they weren’t Evil Al-Qa’eda Tourists. Presumably they were held for four hours because it had to be cleared up and down the food chain.
Still, it’s a rather unpleasant introduction to the US. “Now I am afraid to be here, that if I go shopping and start laughing or talking too loudly in my language, someone will think I am up to something. I say to Indians, ‘Don’t laugh during a flight. Just sit there quietly, read something or sleep.'”
I’m waiting for that to become a new regulation from the Dept. of Homeland Security.