WASHINGTON - Kashif Irfan's son was excited about their family vacation to Florida. "I want to go to the Gala Center, and swimming and on a boat," he said. But the family's plans were delayed when AirTran removed eight members of the Irfan family and a family friend on the same flight.

Alexandria (web | news) lawyer Atif Irfan and his brother Kashif, a Virginia anesthesiologist, were seated on the AirTran flight with their wives, children, family and a friend. According to the airline, two federal air marshals on-board flight 175 contacted D.C. law enforcement officials after comments made by the Irfans' discussing flight safety.

"We generally like to sit in the middle because I've always been told that is the safest place to sit, but then my sister-in-law said it is actually safer to sit in the back of the airplane if anything should happen to the flight," said Atif.

The airline said they told the Transportation Security Administration about the issue. After they questioned several passengers, the TSA ordered all 104 passengers off the plane and luggage to be re-screened. After re-screening the passengers and bags, the TSA allowed 95 passengers to re-board but barred the Asif family and a family friend.

The Indian-American brothers, born in Detroit and now raising their families in Virginia, say they think this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for their Muslim appearance. The men have beards and the women were wearing headscarves.

When ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 reporter Rebecca Cooper asked an AirTran official if the family was singled out based on their Muslim appearance, the official said, "They made a stupid comment in today's environment. I'm sure it didn't help that they were in Muslim dress. That made the passengers uneasy."

While an AirTran official asserted that the two passengers were discussing what would happen if the plane blew up, Atif Irfan noted that they used common sense in their conversation. "Absolutely not. We don't say 'Bomb this,' 'Terrorist that.' We're smarter than that. You just don't do that, but people see us and then they hear what they want to hear," said Irfan.

"The FBI (web) agents actually cleared our names," Inayet Sahin, one of the family members kicked off the flight, told CNN. "They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, 'There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,' and they still refused."

Hutcheson said the passengers were given a full refund and are welcome to fly on AirTran now that the investigation is complete.

Hutcheson and a federal Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said the pilot was right to postpone the flight.

"At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane, and other people heard them," Hutcheson said. "Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions."

One of the passengers removed, Abdur Razack Aziz, said he will consider a lawsuit.

The families point out that the basic tenet of the Muslim faith is to live in peace. But these Muslim-Americans, who rode in their high school homecoming parades, study at the University of Maryland, work at the library of congress and helped deliver New Year's babies at Adventist Hospital, say it has been harder since 9-11 with subtle and not so subtle signs of racism against Muslims. But instead of giving up their faith, they embrace it all the more.

AirTran released a statement saying, "AirTran Airways complied with all TSA, law enforcement and Homeland Security directives and had no discretion in the matter." Flight 175 left Reagan National about two hours late, but safely arrived in Orlando.

As for the Irfans, they were not allowed to rebook on AirTan on Thursday, so they paid extra money to fly on US Airways to Orlando. AirTran says now that the Irfans have been cleared by law enforcement, they can fly with AirTran in the future.

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