Posted on 04/23/2017 11:42:49 AM PDT by COBOL2Java
NEW YORK (AP) — Another day, another cellphone video of a conflict on an airplane.
American Airlines said it grounded a flight attendant who got into a verbal confrontation with a passenger on a Friday flight from San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth.
Spokeswoman Leslie Scott says the airline is looking into whether the male flight attendant violently took away a stroller from the female passenger just before she boarded a Friday flight from San Francisco to Dallas. He has been removed from duty in the meantime.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Looks to me like instead of using security guys they’re using available objects to assault passengers with...
American is just as bad as United.
I will try to avoid United and American in any flight scheduling.
While I am not happy about open seating and extra flight legs, I must say that SouthWest Airlines is staffed by happy employees.
If I were to have my choice, it would be Delta.
Cost savings measure!
Viewing the complete video several times I see several female flight attendants trying to calm the hysterical crying woman. They appeared to be succeeding until the obnoxious male passenger got things all riled up and the woman became hysterical again and restarted her wailing.
Upon the obnoxious, likely drunk, male passenger’s intervention things quickly went to hell in a hand basket, IMHO.
Then the attendant should have beaten the drunk male passenger senseless with the stroller!
Well, I didn’t see ANYONE being beaten by a stroller... perhaps your imagination is running away with strange dreams.
Sarcasm is a foreign language to you, isn't it?
>>I will try to avoid United and American in any flight scheduling.<<
Good luck.
That is like saying “I am going to drive a long distance as fast as possible but I won’t use the interstates.”
Chances are good you will either find no direct (or fewest stops) flights or pay a significant premium.
Or you will end up on a code share that still puts you on their flights.
It’s an oligopoly. Just a few years ago, there used to be 10 or so airlines — now you have 4 (if you include SWA).
Delta is good if you are originating from the South. I don’t think they overlap a lot with UA/AA.
>>Upon the obnoxious, likely drunk, male passenger’s intervention things quickly went to hell in a hand basket, IMHO.<<
Don’t you know? FR is pro-passenger, anti-airline crew. The apparently drunk guy has been hailed as a hero on at least 2 threads I have been on.
I saw it the way you did but many here think of the airlines as more Big Government.
Note: I also thought the UA incident was the passenger’s fault. No matter how they arrived at the decision, fairly or not, once you are told to get off the plane, you get off the damn plane. Refuse and you will be taken off. Period.
I don’t fly any more, so I’m trying to draw conclusions from what I read. Are these problems unavoidable? As many people as possible are squeezed into a large overcrowded airplane after hours of going through the procedures in the airport. That does seem to be a recipe for disaster.
I think things were definitely under control until the the obnoxious man’s unneeded intervention. I do fault the male flight attendant (or gate agent?) for his reaction to the obnoxious guy — he should have simply politely ignored him.
The female flight attendants were successfully calming the hysterical woman. I suspect they would have succeeded in explaining to the woman that she would get her stowed stroller back at the end of the flight. Based solely on her accent, there was a good chance that the woman had limited English proficiency and might not have understood why she wasn’t allowed to keep her stroller at her seat. If the woman wanted/needed something(s) from her stroller, the flight attendants would have allowed her to get it and, actually, would have helped her.
From another article:
Olivia Morgan, who was standing in the door to the cabin with her eight-year-old daughter when the incident occurred, said the woman had been looking for a space to put the collapsible stroller.
A female flight attendant had given her permission to look for a storage space as it folds up small, but said she would have to check it in if there was no room.
The American Airlines website says small, collapsible strollers can be checked at the gate. There is no specific rule about not putting them in overhead bins.
'She was looking for space when the male attendant tried to take it away from her... and she said she told him the other attendant had told her it was okay to look,' Morgan said.
But that wasn't good enough for the man, she said.
'The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby with the second baby in a car seat on the ground next to her,' Morgan said.
The woman can be seen sobbing and asks staff members to get her stroller back. Witnesses said the attendant struck her with the metal stroller as he was dragging it out of her hands.
At this point, other passengers are heard expressing their disgust at the situation.
One says he's 'not going to sit here and watch this...' and then gets up and walks to the front of the plane to confront flight attendants.
The man asks for the name of the employee who is alleged to have hit the crying woman.
'Hit me!' The shocking moment an American Airlines flight attendant challenges a passenger to a...
>> I do fault the male flight attendant (or gate agent?) for his reaction to the obnoxious guy — he should have simply politely ignored him.<<
Agreed. Or he could have quietly asked the guy to return to his seat. The FA blew the whole situation which is why he has been grounded.
For some reason around FR if you fault the jerk (who I also think was drunk) you are condoning the FA, which I do not.
The “incident” (that is the “taking” of the woman's stroller) happened in the rear of the plane earlier than the video so Mrs Morgan likely saw nothing of the “incident” and was simply repeating scuttlebutt. And if Mrs Morgan was the woman in the video (waiting at the door to board) she likely wasn't anywhere near the boarding door when the earlier “incident” at the rear of the plane occurred.
The hysterical woman had twins so she likely had a stroller for two. All strollers (including ones made for twins) are collapsible so they can be placed in cars, but they sure aren't tiny when collapsed and folded.
What you fail to account for is the fact that one of the FA's told her that she could take it on board to see if there was room for it in the overhead. The out of control male FA is the one who lost control and hit the passenger with the stroller while taking it away from her.
Project much? Didn't seem at all drunk to me - and it's pretty unlikely that he was. He seemed to be the "duty hero" sort and intervened when he saw and heard what he took to be an unfair situation.
It's very likely a whole lot of other people would have intervened in that situation too - I'm fairly sure I would have too, though differently than the big guy.
Not all of us are willing to sit back and watch abuse. You would let a situation like that unfold and do nothing?
Look carefully right after the passenger says 'Hey bud, hey bud'. Bald puff-boy knocks against the woman and her baby, causing her to move. That's what set her off.
Upon the obnoxious, likely drunk, male passenger’s intervention things quickly went to hell in a hand basket, IMHO.
He didn't act drunk at all to me. He was standing up to a thug.
The airlines don’t sound like a good transportation choice. Truth is that any destination within 8 hours drive is just as timely by car considering waits, hassle, and indignities.
I use 12 hours. I like having my own car.
‘Don’t you know? FR is pro-passenger, anti-airline crew.’
That is not a very perceptive comment.
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