"Attention please. Would the defensive linemen
please move to the front of the cabin?"
Posted on 01/10/2017 4:48:18 PM PST by Gamecock
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Former New York U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato was escorted off a JetBlue flight Monday night.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, D’Amato – a Republican – had a reputation in the U.S. Senate as something of a rabble-rouser. At age 79, that penchant speaking his mind seems to have earned him the heave-ho from the plane in Fort Lauderdale that was set to fly to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The incident took place around 8 p.m. Monday night. It began after passengers on flight 1002 to New York were delayed for seven hours in the terminal, according to a passenger and D’Amato’s office.
After several hours delay, the passengers, including D’Amato, boarded the flight, passenger Jacqueline Galante told CBS2.
Once on board, they were delayed for another half an hour or so, until a member of the flight crew got on the intercom and asked if there were 10 passengers who’d be willing to move their seats to adjust the plane’s weight distribution, enabling them to take off, Galante said.
Some passengers did so, but apparently not enough, prompting D’Amato to get up from his seat at the rear of the plane and walk up and down the aisle – asking if anybody else would be willing to trade seats, according to Galante.
At some point, Galante said D’Amato spoke with members of the flight crew.
A few minutes later, members of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department boarded the plane and escorted D’Amato off the flight, Galante said.
“The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly,” JetBlue said in a statement. “If a customer is causing a conflict on the aircraft, it is standard procedure to ask the customer to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs a risk of escalation in-flight.”
Galante told CBS2 D’Amato wasn’t being disruptive and didn’t speak out loudly until the officers boarded the plane to remove him.
“He was talking not in a big raised voice or anything, just sort of like trying to encourage people; someone to volunteer so we can go,” Galante said.
D’Amato also talked with the flight crew, and although she did not hear the exchange, it was apparently enough to send him packing.
While he was being escorted off the flight, D’Amato piped up.
“We can still speak in this country, and what you’re doing to me. And I want to tell you this – I’ll make an appeal to all you people. You want to know what? Stand up for what’s right and walk out with me,” D’Amato said. “Stand up and walk out… If you don’t, what’ll you stand up for?”
At least one other passenger apparently got off the flight with D’Amato, Galante said.
D’Amato’s office defended the outspoken former senator.
“Anyone who knows Senator D’Amato knows he speaks his mind, but in this case he spoke after a long and demanding trip to Florida to visit an ailing friend, a five hour airport ground delay, additional delays as the crew sought to deal with weight and balance issues and then sleep deprivation,” D’Amato’s office said in a statement. “JetBlue has apologized to the Senator for overreacting and the Senator has apologized for speaking his mind at a time when he clearly had left his patience at the gate.”
JetBlue did refund D’Amato’s airfare, and like other passengers, he was given a $150 credit for the delay. His spokesman said he did not know whether the former senator would make use of the credit, or decide not to fly JetBlue again.
D’Amato was not expected to land in New York until late Tuesday.
The headline makes it sound like he was the bad guy, and by the end of the story I was on his side.
Ah, the joys of flying.
Weight distribution? What size plane was this?
Asking people to move, in order to balance the aircraft?
What a bunch of —— ——.
The crew knows the weight and balance of the aircraft before push back.
Unless this was a puddle jumper, I’m wondering if there wasn’t something else going on, a passenger demanding a certain seating arrangement and the weight thing was an excuse.
Cleared that up right away in the second sentence.
If they have to move passengers around to balance the plane, I’m going to get off and take another flight...
If that’s the case, who on that flight had more juice than Sen. Pothole...?
I take it you don’t fly very often or know nothing about aerodynamics
No I don’t, and this is precisely why.
I will not put up with delays and unconstitutional searches.
I don’t fly; won’t put up with the nonsense.
Then you’re missing out. It’s a great big beautiful world out there, and I’m enjoying seeing it
People want to be treated well on airlines but insist on paying rates more appropriate for cargo then try to skirt the rules by testing the limits for baggage weight and size then being difficult to the flight staff.
Airlines respond by cutting closer to the margins on weight and schedule, and occasionally things go @ss over teaketttle and a tired flight crew has a half hour to get a nearly overloaded airliner into the air before FAA regs say they have to deplane and switch out, further delaying the flight. Plug in one retire important person who isn’t ready to sit down and color and you get something that looks like this.
No snowflake in the avalanche thinks itself responsible.
Dunno, the other thread has more detail on the balance thing
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3512687/posts?page=1#1
I've traveled quite a bit in my career and been on quite a few airplanes. I've NEVER run into a situation where passengers are asked to switch seats to adjust a planes weight distribution.
If that were to EVER happen on a plane I was on, I'd insist on getting the hell off that plane pronto. WTF!!!
Guilty of being a Republican and being old. Two things Liberals HATE.
Die already, or CONVERT!
Wow. Liberals are kinda like Islamo-facists in that respect, are they not?
*SMIRK*
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