We have an update on that British Air Passengers Mutiny story from Saturday, as information emerges that the passengers may have had more cause for alarm than first reported: Malaga passenger defends actions. (Hat tip: Allahpundit.)

David Wearden, who was returning from a nine-day holiday with his wife and three children, said the first he became aware anything unusual was happening was as the plane was due to take off and “the family in front of us just got off”.

“We were all very puzzled by what was going on. There was no announcement,” he said. The financial services lawyer said there was a feeling of “quiet unease” and children began panicking. “There wasn’t any collective action. There was no shouting or demands for those people to be taken off at all. It was very calm. Most people were still very much on the plane, but people were upset by what was going on.”

The captain then spoke to the two men and returned to the cockpit with their passports, said Mr Wearden. “We were then asked to get off the plane and go back to the airport where they did a full security check.”

It was then, he said, that his wife Susanne began talking to another passenger who said she had sat next to the two men.

“She said she had heard them saying it was the last 30 minutes of their lives,” said Mr Wearden. “It may well be that the two simply thought they were being funny, but it perhaps better explains the passenger reaction.”

And an answer to complaints that the passengers were all a bunch of racist pigs, targeting perceived Asians out of sheer racist piggishness:

He denied this reaction had been racist. “You hear about people making jokes about these things in airports and being arrested and told it is not a joking matter in the current climate. Well this was another case of that.”

At the time, he said, he had felt annoyed as he had wanted to “get home and sleep”.

“I felt that if people are going to muck around like that they should be the ones that are inconvenienced,” he said.