At dawn last Thursday, as the British Airways plane landed at Cairo International TB2, Magdi El-Galad, editor in chief of the daily Al-Masri El-Youm was about to cross the tube to the terminal when the airline agent came to tell him that his luggage had been removed from plane at Heathrow airport "for security procedures". The journalist got so angry that he decided to remain on the plane in protest. As the agent tried to stop him, his finger hit a wireless device and was injured. In a few minutes, airport security had a real problem which was that a prominent journalist went on a sit-in strike inside the British plane. After four hours, El-Galad agreed to end the sit-in after he filed a report against the airline, its crew and the agent. He accused the pilot and crew of racial practices against him and his friend only for being Arabs. At nightfall, El-Galad appeared on a public TV show where he revealed his version of story. "I have asked the Foreign Ministry to act to preserve the dignity of Egyptians against such racial practices of British Airways. Or else I will take the whole story to both British and Egyptian courts," he warned on the TV show. Certainly El-Galad's claims have strong bases against an airline with a not very good reputation when it comes to racism whether it be passengers or employees. Yet, the story has another version. El-Galad who was travelling with his son and a friend reached Heathrow airport on time. Shereif Bakeer, his friend, went for last minute shopping at the duty free shops. With his luggage being checked in among El-Galad's luggage, the pilot decided to take off, leaving this passenger behind, since he had no luggage officially registered onboard. El-Galad asked the pilot to permit his friend to get on the plane, but instead the pilot checked his luggage labels and ordered them out of the plane. The flight took off without both the friend and the luggage. At Cairo International, El-Galad felt insulted that he not only could not bring his friend onboard, but also had his own luggage was left behind. Thus his colourful way of showing his frustration that the airline pilot would not take the word of a prominent Egyptian journalist and instead resorted to bureaucratic fiat, creating a nightmare for the two travellers. The Foreign Ministry made no comment. But the airline made an official apology to the journalist who published their letter of apology in his paper. "British Airways has announced its apology to the editor in chief, who it highly respects as a person and a journalist. The airline is absolutely ready to compensate El-Galad in any suitable way he chooses," said the sheepish British Airways PR officer for the Pacific Europe and Asia.
