Posted on 04/13/2017 9:36:43 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
f there’s one thing I have learned over the years, it’s that there are always two sides to every story.
On April 9th, a very unfortunate incident played out on United Flight 3411, the video of which has since gone viral causing a mass social media uprising with an ‘off-with-their-heads’ mentality. I mean, across the board. Fire ’em all and let the gods sort it out later.
Look, I get it. When I first saw the video I was appalled too. To say that it was inflammatory would be putting it mildly. But it was also a situation that was escalated far beyond the boundaries of necessity.
If a federal law enforcement officer asks me to exit a plane, no matter how royally pissed off I am, I’m going to do it and then seek other means of legal reimbursement. True story.
Knowing what I know about airport security, I’m certainly not going to run back into a secured, federally restricted area at an airport flailing my arms and screaming like a banshee…because, you know, that just happens to be breaking a major federal Homeland Security law.
But that’s just me. Obviously.
The moment I made that particular ill-advised choice, I would become an immediate and imminent threat to the aircraft’s security. That’s kind of a big deal. I mean, come on, I once actually had to remove my infant son’s socks because they mimicked little baby sneakers. These guys mean business.
I didn’t like it. I thought it was just plain stupid, honestly. But instead of pitching a massive fit, refusing to comply, and bolting through the TSA checkpoint like an out-of-control toddler, I did the big girl thing–sucked it up, removed the offensive socks, and went on with my happy life, sans being tackled and dragged through the airport in handcuffs by a bunch of big men with guns.
Because if you choose to take advantage of the services the airport provides, you play by their rules.
I know you’re all out there screaming that the ‘rules’ are unfair, but I am a pilot wife. I remember 9/11. Do you? I want my husband, the father of my children, to come home. I want you to get home. That law exists to protect my husband. And your wife. And your grandmother. And your child. And you. I, for one, am glad for the law.
I’m not here to dispute the facts of 3411 with you. I am not interested in getting into an argument of opinion with anyone. We’re all entitled to our own. I’m not arguing that what happened wasn’t completely terrible–it was, on multiple levels. But I am suggesting that the general public take another look at the situation, ask a few more questions, gather a few more facts, and then create a less hostile and more intellectually wrought opinion about what happened.
Because the media is giving you just enough information to keep you enraged–enough to keep their ratings up.
Things to consider:
1) “You can’t just kick a paying customer off the plane!” Psssst! It’s in the fine print. They can, indeed, do just that. And it’s not an airline specific rule, it’s a commercial aviation rule. Every ticket you purchase comes with a plethora of fine print–you know, the stuff we just click ‘next’ on without actually reading what we are agreeing to. Yeah, that. Well, it’s in there, and you checked the ‘I agree’ box when you purchased your ticket. You can read about it and oh-so-much-more here. Kind of makes you want to read all those tiny words on your next phone update before you click ‘I agree’, huh? You should. United did not break any law, and he agreed to the policy and possibility of involuntary bump when he bought his ticket. And so do you.
2) “Kicking a paying customer off an airplane!? I’m taking my business to Southwest!” Ummmm, okay. But just be sure you understand that every major airline, Southwest included, has a similar policy for involuntary bumping in a ‘must ride’ scenario. Don’t believe me? It’s called the contract of carriage. If you’re really bored, you can read Southwest’s here. Or Delta’s here. Believe me, it’s in there. This could have been any airline. In fact, it happens all the time. Most people just don’t wrestle the feds in the aisle.
3: “So what’s this ‘must ride’ nonsense anyway? They shouldn’t bump a paying customer for a free employee ride!” I’m afraid you’re going to have to take this up with the federal government, not United. And it’s actually pretty important to you as an airline traveler anyway. They were not ‘freeloading home’. That’s called non-rev and they have to wait in line behind your checkbook and often don’t make it home to their families if flights are booked (believe me, I know). No, this was a must fly, a positive space situation. In layman terms, it means that a crew must be flown to an airport to man a flight in order to avoid cancellation of said flight due to crew unavailability. This is a federal DOT regulation, not an airline one. The airlines are required to do so to avoid disruption of air traffic. In other words, if there are no willing volunteers and they need seats to get a crew somewhere to avoid disruption of aviation flow, they can, will, must by federal regulation bump people for the better good of the 1000’s. Why? Because one cancelled flight has a serious domino affect in the delicate, complicated world of connections and aviation law.
4: “It’s the airline’s fault for not planning better!” You obviously have no clue about the complexities of aviation travel and should do some research. There are about a million and one things that can cause a crew shortage including but not limited to weather, maintenance, weather, connecting fight delays, weather, FAA timeout regs, and did I mention weather? I wish I could control Mother Nature because I would be one filthy rich person. But I can’t. And neither can United. So they inconvenience one, or four, to keep hundreds on track. Do the math. And of course, if we were on the other end of this thing, we’d be tirading and blowing up the internet because United didn’t bump a passenger to make sure our flight didn’t get cancelled and left hundreds stranded. Damned if you do; damned if you don’t. We’re a fickle crowd, we social media folks.
5: They shouldn’t have picked the minority Chinese doctor! It’s racist.” That’s just silly. Though federal regulation demands they involuntarily bump to prevent interruption of flights when necessary, each airline does have the leniency to determine how they choose the bumped passengers. They did not play spin the bottle or walk down the aisle looking for the Asian guy. Use your heads, people! There is a computerized algorithm that takes into account price of ticket, how long ago it was purchased, whether or not they can get the passenger to their destination in a timely manner, etc. It wasn’t an ‘Asian thing.’ Stop, people. Just stop.
6: “United should go under for assaulting that passenger! Fire the entire crew!” Read the facts. United neeeever touched the passenger. In fact, by all witness accounts, the United flight crew remained calm and pleasant throughout the entire event, never laying hands on the passenger. They followed protocol as required by law. Once law enforcement became involved (also as required by federal protocol), United stepped out of the decision-making process. They had nothing to do with the rest. The passenger was forcibly removed by federal aviation security (the disturbing clip that everyone is talking about) after running back into the secured area after being escorted out once. Once he did that, like it or not, they (law enforcement) were under full discretion of the law to apply necessary force to remove the threat. I’m not saying it’s pretty, but the only one who actually broke a law was the passenger. There’s a reason for these laws–it’s called 9/11. We can’t have it both ways. But by all means, let’s berate and punish an entire flight crew–in fact thousands of pilots, FA’s, gate attendents, ground crew, etc.–because it makes us all feel a little better.
7: “You piece of **it!” I get that the passengers were upset, angry, maybe even confused. I get that you are too. After all, media is tossing you out chunks of bloody meat like you’re a pack of starving wolves. But I’m seriously disgusted that the poor must ride crew that had to take those seats after the unfortunate mess that unraveled were verbally abused and threatened. Can you imagine the very uncomfortable position they were in? Then they were demeaned, belittled, threatened. Along with many others all over the internet and airports today. They were and are men and women doing their jobs to feed their families. Just. Like. You. They didn’t have a choice. They didn’t ask for this. They didn’t assault anyone. They are not a corporation; they are individuals who need a job. They are my friends and maybe even my husband. There’s a very fine line between what you despise and becoming what you despise. Many of the comments and actions I have seen perpetrated against United employees cross it. Don’t become what you hate.
Like I said, I know you’re mad at United, but there’s much more to the story than hits the media fan.
I truly hope that this gives you something to chew on and gives you a smidgen more insight into the complexities of aviation. I’m not making excuses. I think there were bad decisions made on both sides. However, I am saying there are always two sides to every story. Make sure you consider them both.
Tailwinds.
***A correction to the previous article. Mr. Dao was indeed Vietmanese and not Chinese. That quote was verbatim from a comment off the internet. I apology profusely for the confusion.
Angelia (A Pilot Wife)
Excuse me ma'am, but those services are provided by the taxpayers and paying customers, customers who paid for tickets to fly on your husband's airplane, paying for his salary that bought the socks you had to remove from your child.
The customers pay for a service and are entitled to their benefit of the bargain.
“These guys mean business”.
So did Luca Brasi.
Doesn’t make him a good guy.
I agree with your position. I am surprised at some of the snarky responses...they seen better suited to Twitter or Reddit or Facebook. I expected a more professional conversation on this site. These days, I don’t envy anyone, in any profession, who has to deal with the public.
Since Chicago is only 4 1/2 hours to Lexington. Ky., the employees could have driven there. It would have saved United a lot of money in the longrun.
Another solution would have been to try to book them a flight on a rival airline.
Yeah, and you remember how Luca turned out. :-) So, there’s that, I suppose.
Naw, appealing to the fine print in “the contract” is just stupid. I’ve never heard of anyone getting involuntarily bumped from an airline flight even at the gate or the ticket counter, much less once they’ve already boarded. Everyone understands that sometimes they need to bump people and so they offer incentives in order to get volunteers. You don’t just start randomly forcing people off the flight because nobody was buying the weak incentives that you were offering. You offer better incentives until you get volunteers.
Now, that’s not to say that this guy’s behavior was warranted. He certainly could’ve ended the situation with considerably less physical harm to himself by willingly complying with the request, but given how unjust the request was, he’s going to get a lot of sympathy.
I like that United has officially adopted “F You” as their corporate slogan.
“Pilot’s Wife” is off the rails.
She goes on and on about security, 9-11...blah blah blah.
This event had absolutely nothing to do with security.
The airline itself has said what it was all about....some crew members who needed to deadhead to operate another flight.
As a private pilot who flew for many many years, I fail to understand how people put up with the crap they have to go through today to fly commercial. The drive to Louisville is said to be four hours. I would bet money that from the point they visited in Chicago to the airport to the airplane to Louisville and to the parking lot where they parked their car, it was four hours or more.
This event had
According to a guy on Fox Business, the airline employees getting the seats were Republic Airline crew.
I think that is part of the appalling nature of this incident. As in the Milgrim experiments which demonstrated "Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being.", the airport security cops assaulted this man because they were told that was their job by the airline staff.
The CEO rightly assumed blame for unleashing that level of force, saying they will never call airport security to remove a seated passenger for overboarding again, but it is very sobering that no one was in control of this runaway situation.
Once the wheels were set in motion by blind adherence to what someone thought was protocol, a beat down was administered to a man who was in the right, according to the United Airlines conditions of carriage which comply with Federal Aviation Regulations.
Human nature truly contains the ridiculous, the sublime and the appalling. They beat this man because he wouldn't obey them when the rules were in his favor.
We have grown callous to TSA assaulting grandmothers, young children, mentally handicapped, medically fragile people. We turn our heads from seeing suburban house wives strip searched by the side of the road by cops who don't change gloves between searches, pregnant women slammed to the pavement during traffic stops for not knowing exactly how to do what the officer wanted quickly enough. We blame people for insisting politely on their rights and say they deserved a beat down.
A bridge too far for me. I don't have to like this guy to stand up for his right to be treated lawfully. It could be any of us one day standing up for something someone else would just move on from but which matters to us. We have lost so much of what America means, I will not lose the right for people to stand up for what they believe in or what they think is their right.
This was a blue moon for this passenger but its an everyday for the airline. Why weren't the staff educated as to the differences between pre-boarding and seated on the plane? Why weren't they provided with contingency plans in case of issues like this and offers to make to seek a volunteer? Why are they not the ones people are blaming? Why is a "pilots wife" telling us things just have to be that way for the good of us all? Not my America.
They left him lying on the walkway that they dragged him to and went to get a stretcher. He came to and staggered back on the plane.
Wonder if “she “ exists or is an airline publicity construct.
I picture this lady wearing her husband’s leather jacket and prescription aviator glasses as she typed out this pile of excrement.
She’s wrong on so many levels.
My wife is an RN, and I don’t use her position to justify my opinions on medicine.
If it took driving 3 days, I’d prefer driving than flying. East coast to west coast, I’d rather drive myself. If I can’t get there by car, I don’t need to go.
Last time we flew, it was a chartered flight but the flight attendants demanded we sit in assigned seating. Wouldn’t let us sit with our kids. It was chartered for gosh sakes. It was our @%*&^# plane. In the middle of the night, they woke everyone up to play pass the toilet roll and other silly games no one wanted to play. Both landings were horrid. Never again.
Very well written, sounds like Airlines in damage control, not a wife concerned about her Husband.
The takeaway for me........
“if you choose to take advantage of the services the airport provides, you play by their rules.”
I have chosen not to fly period under these conditions.
Yep, that and "tough sh*t".
If United wanted to send 4 employees to another city for another flight, they should have handled the situation before allowing passengers to board.
The passenger that was pulled off the plane suffered a concussion, broken nose and he lost two teeth according to a FOX news report.
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You hit the nail on the head, that was a huge mistake and lapse in judgment.
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