RAG Jailbreakers removed from flight to Turkey after terror suspicions

One team in RAG’s jailbreak competition found themselves £400 down and a day behind after being pulled off of a flight to Istanbul by anti-terror police.

The group of students, who were raising money for several charities, had spent the first morning of the jailbreak fundraising around West London. After finding themselves unable to blag any free flights at Heathrow that evening, they decided to use some of the money to buy flights to Turkey.

They were carrying a sign advertising what they were doing which mentioned one of their chosen charities: “Hand in Hand for Syria”.

Despite being allowed through airport security and explaining what they were doing to the staff who sold them the flights, just before take-off, a man dressed in a high-visibility jacket boarded the plane and approached one member of the group, asking: “So what’s the problem?”

Confused, the team were told to leave the plane and to bring their IDs. Just outside the cabin, they were met with a group of armed and plain-clothes anti-terror police.

Their passports were examined, with one student’s passport causing particular upset due to the presence of a police stamp necessary for a visa. The three students were then separated and questioned by police for forty minutes. Once it became clear that they weren’t a threat to anyone, the group were free to go but were not allowed to board the flight to Turkey, and were now down several hours and a few hundred pounds.

The team let the RAG committee know about the situation via Facebook, and this message was quickly passed to Imperial College via campus security. There was some miscommunication involved, and college were told the group were arrested, which they were not. However, the students were not contacted by anyone at college during this time (or since) regarding their safety.

The group were told their removal was a direct instruction from the pilot

Despite the ordeal, the team hitchhiked to Gatwick the next day and flew to Berlin, before hitchhiking to Radzymin in Poland, which amounted to 907 miles in 36 hours. This meant they had raised £724, not including the amount they had paid for the unused flights.

The group were told their removal was a direct instruction from the pilot but suspected it was because they had asked a flight attendant if they could make an announcement about the charities to the passengers over the plane’s intercom. The attendant said she would ask to the pilot and it was soon after this that they were removed.

When the group returned to the UK they had a meeting with the union and RAG, where they were told that the union would help them recover the money from Turkish Airlines, which would add to the funds they’d raised for charity, and that perhaps there would be a meeting with senior management at college. However, weeks passed and the jailbreak group did not hear anything from the union or college. Eventually, through RAG, they were told that the union’s senior managers now felt that “any correspondence regarding this matter should come directly from the students rather than from Imperial College Union”.

The jailbreak team members told FELIX they were “extremely frustrated” with the union, so decided to attempt to recoup the charity money themselves. Although several weeks had now passed, the group repeatedly tried to get in contact with Turkish Airlines, which culminated in the three students turning up at the company’s headquarters in Kensington Olympia last week. After initially promising them a full refund, a member of staff later emailed the group saying they would only be paid back the tax. After explaining the situation once again to the airline, they finally agreed to pay back the amount which had been raised for charity.

‘Hand in Hand for Syria’, the charity whose name seems to have got them chucked off the flight, told FELIX that it was “sorry to hear they encountered difficulties” but that “their total raised amount was incredible, and we’re so grateful that they have dedicated to raising funds for the people of Syria”.

RAG told FELIX they were “extremely grateful for the support received during and after the incident from the Student Activities team” at the union but that it was “unfortunate that senior managers in the union felt it was not appropriate to help out the students to recover the money”, adding that they were “extremely proud of the team for persevering and recovering the money and delighted that this can now be donated to great causes”.

The union told FELIX that they had “supported these students immediately after the incident and worked closely with College to ensure there was no impact on their studies or ability to travel in future. We decided that the students would have a greater chance of getting a refund if they contacted the airline directly, which turned out to be correct.”

RAG jailbreak involves teams of students attempting to get as far away from a starting point as possible in a 36 hour period. The team can’t spend any of their own money, and must use donations or favours to travel. The teams are sponsored per mile they get away from Imperial, with the record for the furthest being Singapore. Although this one happened back in November, another jailbreak has been scheduled for the 19th of March.

Turkey is one of the main routes into Syria, especially for Westerners who go there to fight. The British police say they suspect up to 700 people from the UK have gone to work or fight for jihadist causes in Syria and Iraq. Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows police to hold people at ports, rail stations and airports even without needing “reasonable suspicion”. They can then be held for up to nine hours.