Former Comair flight attendant (FA) Gilbert Knops has filed suit against the airline, claiming his ethnic appearance and anti-war sentiment bred suspicion of an involvement in terrorism that led to his firing. According to the suit, a coworker reported him for showing her a sticker ridiculing “support the troops” car magnets and a cartoon lampooning President George W. Bush. It also claims that the fellow flight attendant, Linda Brutzer, told Comair executives of various statements made by Knops she considered anti-American and pro-terrorist, leading to an investigation by the company.
Comair reportedly fired Knops, a German citizen of German-Dominican ethnicity, on the same day he underwent questioning by an FBI official, who, according to the suit, subsequently deemed him not a threat.