No ID will get you on the plane but not off the ground

3 movies (I highly recommend Wreck it Ralph), 1.5 hours of sleeping, a reasonable breakfast, 50 squats, 50 lunges, a 10 minute ab workout, and a mini rocket yoga session later we arrived at Dubai International, a pretty cosmopolitan caviar and Pinkberry kind of place.

We stopped in at the Marhaba lounge which provided an escape from the masses trolling the airport and some delicious dates and tea.

After perusing the duty free and a variety of ceramic Arab bobble heads we headed towards our gate and met up with some of the team: 2 audiologist, an or nurse, a nurse practitioner, a hearing aid guy, our director, and a med student.

Our flight was delayed, but we were boarded anyway. Upon being seated a security guy appeared with a fleet of flight attendants flanking him with a particular interest in on either very short or hunching passenger. These people were then joined by 3 official looking women in burkas. Curious I went in ambulance chaser style to the bathroom to check it out. As it turns out the very tiny very harmless looking woman was handcuffed to the security guard. She began to refuse to move and the security guard and the official chicks starting trying to force her out of her seat with dramatic yanking and some stern talking. He eventually picked her up out of her chair and forced her to stand. The lady in question kept talking what must have been ethiopian trash, smiling, and laughing evil villain style. Whatever she said made the security dude smack her upside the head.

After her "offloading" the flight attendants when through the whole plane and made us all claim our bags for safety reasons.

The good news is my wild imagination consisting of conspiracy theory, biohazards, and witchcraft (she had a creepy eye situation going on) was diverted to something weirder when a lady sitting near us translated that the passenger had refused to show her passport and ticket after boarding. We asked the flight attendants and they said there are many reasons that people refuse to show their ID. When asked what those reasons were we got a smile followed by "many". The rumor then became that her passport was expired and she has no ticket. We then asked how she got on the plane?? No one seemed to know.


The pictures: Dubai international and the lady being extracted.