A flight was delayed for more than two hours on Thursday after a paranoid passenger suspected a professor writing out math equations was a terrorist, the academic says.
American Airlines confirmed with The Huffington Post that the Thursday evening flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse was delayed after a female passenger said she was sick and “expressed some concerns” about the behavior of a male passenger. Spokesman Casey Norton could not confirm the names of either person on the Air Wisconsin-operated flight due to privacy regulations.
But Guido Menzio, an Italian University of Pennsylvania economics professor told The Washington Post that he was the suspect. His seatmate tried making small talk while the flight was boarding, but he wasn’t particularly talkative because he was trying to work out equations on a notepad, Menzio said.
