An Ivy League professor’s flight took a turn for the worst when a passenger next to him mistook his work on a math problem as terrorist code. According to Fox News, American Airlines confirms a woman expressed suspicions about University of Pennsylvania professor Guido Menzio.
Menzio was on his way to Syracuse from Philadelphia on Thursday, May 5 to give a speech at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. He was working on a differential equation, but was told the woman believed he may be a terrorist because of what he was writing.
The 40-year-old award-winning Italian economist was astonished by the woman’s lack of knowledge. He told The Washington Post he was troubled by “a security protocol that is too rigid – in the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checks – and relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless.”
The short flight took off more than two hours after it’s scheduled departure due to one woman’s ignorance.
