In the first post-9/11 racial profiling case against an airline to go to trial, a Boston jury has awarded $400,000 to a man who alleged he was thrown off an American Airlines flight because of his Middle Eastern appearance.

The captain of the December 2003 flight from Boston's Logan International Airport to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., decided before takeoff to deplane John Cerqueira and two Israeli men for “inappropriate, suspicious comments.” After police questioned and released the passengers, American refused to let them reboard the plane or catch another flight.

Cerqueira, 39, is actually of Portuguese descent and sued for ethnic discrimination, claiming he was a “victim of racial profiling” by airline personnel who “mistakenly believed [he] was of Arab, Middle Eastern, or South Asian descent.”

American insisted it acted properly in identifying Cerqueira as a security risk and did not intentionally discriminate against him. “[T]he decision to remove the plaintiff from the plane and to later deny him air transport was based solely on security concerns,” the company argued in a motion for judgment as a matter of law.

U.S. District Judge William G. Young denied the motion and the jury this week ordered American to pay Cerqueira $130,000 in compensatory damages and $270,000 in punitives.

“Pilots have not forgotten” 9/11, Capt. Denny Breslin, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, complained to the Boston Herald. “It’s a sad day when you lose to political correctness.”

But what American really lost to was the overreaction of its staff to, at best, the minimal provocation of Cerqueira and the two other passengers.

According to the defense, Cerqueira, who had a coach class ticket, initially attracted attention by boarding with the first class passengers and proceeding directly to a bathroom where he “spent an inordinate amount of time.”

After finally emerging from the restroom, the defense said, Cerqueira sat down in the same row as the Israelis and joined them in making “inappropriate remarks” during the safety briefing and feigning sleep as a flight attendant walked past.

None of this behavior justified deplaning Cerqueira, let alone barring him from American flights once police had cleared him to fly. And without any evidence that Cerqueira was a security risk, the jury could reasonably conclude that the airline racially profiled him.

“I do realize Sept. 11 weighs hard on our consciences and everyone is interested in better safe than sorry,” Cerqueira said. “But if they had just put me on another plane, none of this would have happened.”