Usually we hear airline horror stories involving only one passenger who has been booted off a flight for alleged misbehavior, and it is a case of that one passenger’s sadly unsupported word against, all too often, all the flight attendants who close ranks and support each other.
But how about a situation where three passengers, unrelated to each other, are all booted off a plane by one flight attendant? The three women corroborate each other’s stories, and the flight attendant seems to have nothing and no-one to support his actions?
Yes, I know what you are thinking. Isn’t it only the captain of a flight who has the authority to call the police and have them forcibly remove passengers from his flight? And doesn’t he only do that after carefully consulting with the flight attendant making the complaint and the other flight attendants on board, and perhaps after personally intervening and making an informed balanced decision?
So how now to explain the unmitigated outrage inherent in this story of three women who were booted off an Airtran/Southwest flight shortly before it was due to Palm Beach? (As well as the text, there are two video clips that play, one after the other, which add more to the story.)
One woman had the temerity to ask the flight attendant to please be careful with her bag in the overhead because it had fragile contents. The flight attendant’s response? To more aggressively shove other bags up against her bag.
The second woman pointed out to him that her seat had a broken armrest. The flight attendant’s response? He said ‘I’m not talking to you’ and poked her in the arm.
The third woman said, upon seeing police and airline staff remove the first two women ‘Why are you doing this, they’ve done nothing wrong?’. The flight attendant’s response? He ordered the police to remove her too.
Apparently, at Palm Beach, and with Airtran/Southwest, rogue flight attendants capriciously control what happens on flights, while the police meekly do what these flight attendants tell them to do, and the captain hides away in the cockpit, wanting nothing to do with anything.
The one piece of potential good news? One of the three women booted off the plane is an attorney……
I can belive this. During a chaotic Delta boarding at Atlanta, when a flight attendant did nothing to make it better, a suitcase after i was already seated fell out of the overheard on onto my head. The flight attendants were more concerned about my suring Delta than what happened. They told me to stay on the plane after everyone gets off, this being in NYC. I didn;t do this, knowing better. They then had the police waiting, and stationed their staff all around the gate I came out to listen to what the police said to me, and my replies.
Only by thinking quickly, did l let the police know they would be in a legal issue by taking me to a local hopsital to be checked, against my will. Having lived in NYC, I know better than to go to a municipal hospital. The officer backed down. many flight attendants are wonderful, truly. But there are enough little tyrants out there so that every passenger ought know how to avoid these situations. When the police realize that are acting outisde the law by complting with some of these requests, they will back down..
It is unfortunate that these tyrants mar the image of the attendants who are hepful and pleasant. But even more unfortuinate when people who have done nothing are threatened and bullied. Thank yopu for bringing to light what the public faces these days.