In his State of the Union address, President George Bush praised American Airlines flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Christina Jones for stopping accused shoe-bomber Richard Reid and “likely [saving] nearly 200 lives.” They aren’t the only airline employees who have been singled out as heroes in the war on terrorism: Sandra Bradshaw, a flight attendant aboard the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, was mentioned as a possible Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. And a recent editorial praised all flight attendants as the “unsung heroes” in the current conflict.
But there’s another side to the story – the passenger’s side – that suggests flight attendants are anything but heroes.
Just talk to Akiko Mitsui, a charity worker from New York whose crime was asking for the name of the flight attendant who wouldn’t let her stow her regulation-size bag in an overhead compartment. Instead of getting an answer, she got kicked off her flight from New Orleans to New York. A Continental Airlines crewmember told her, “That’s it. You’re outta here!” according to Mitsui. The plane returned to the terminal and the 5-foot-4-inch passenger was escorted off the aircraft. (Continental refused to comment on the incident.)
Or ask Pamela Batch Garza about her Delta Air Lines flight from Orlando to Allentown, Pa. As she boarded, a flight attendant began yelling at her because she was carrying too many bags. Even after surrendering her excess luggage, the crewmember continued to harangue her. Finally, Garza asked for the attendant’s name – at which point she and her entire family were shown the door. “He said if I did not leave the aircraft immediately, he would have security physically remove me and have me arrested,” she told me. (Delta refused to comment on the incident.)
Then there’s the John Kish incident. Kish got kicked off a recent AirTran Airways flight because a crewmember accused him of “not apologizing” to her after she claimed that he bumped her with his bag. Interestingly, the flight he was ejected from wasn’t the flight that his alleged offense took place on. It was a connecting flight that the same crew transferred to. When the crewmember saw him at the gate, she waited for him to board the aircraft and stood by his seat. As he approached her, she said, “Get off my plane.” (AirTran had no comment on the incident.)
This is neither heroic, nor professional behavior. But it is increasingly common. No one knows how many travelers are removed from commercial flights every year. I checked with the Federal Aviation Administration, and it doesn’t release those statistics. However, airline officials admit – and anecdotal evidence confirms – that these aren’t isolated cases. “We’ve done a complete 180-degree turn, from an attitude of ‘the customer is always right’ to ‘the customer is not always right,’” one airline spokesman told me. “We started backing the flight crews in disputes with passengers.”
In an age of air rage, hijackings and shoe-bombers trained by al-Qaeda, no one would question a policy of backing a flight crew. It’s how the cabin attendants operate within the parameters of these rules that’s telling: many of them acting as airborne autocrats with the absolute power to remove any passenger for any reason.
But airline crewmembers are neither heroes nor villains. They are just confused, and so are we. The president and the public think of them as surrogate air marshals. Many passengers still treat them like glorified waiters. And their employers saddle them with the duty of both purser and peacekeeper – a dual mandate they can’t possibly fulfill.
Maybe it’s time to clarify the role of the flight attendant. Has the time come to train cabin crew in hand-to-hand combat? To deputize them as law enforcement officers? Even to arm them? Once those questions are answered, then these frivolous passenger ejections are far less likely to happen, because an aircraft’s crew will know how to handle – and how not to handle – an unruly passenger.
In his State of the Union address, President George Bush praised American Airlines flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Christina Jones for stopping accused shoe-bomber Richard Reid and “likely [saving] nearly 200 lives.” They aren’t the only airline employees who have been singled out as heroes in the war on terrorism: Sandra Bradshaw, a flight attendant aboard the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, was mentioned as a possible Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. And a recent editorial praised all flight attendants as the “unsung heroes” in the current conflict.
But there’s another side to the story – the passenger’s side – that suggests flight attendants are anything but heroes.
Just talk to Akiko Mitsui, a charity worker from New York whose crime was asking for the name of the flight attendant who wouldn’t let her stow her regulation-size bag in an overhead compartment. Instead of getting an answer, she got kicked off her flight from New Orleans to New York. A Continental Airlines crewmember told her, “That’s it. You’re outta here!” according to Mitsui. The plane returned to the terminal and the 5-foot-4-inch passenger was escorted off the aircraft. (Continental refused to comment on the incident.)
Or ask Pamela Batch Garza about her Delta Air Lines flight from Orlando to Allentown, Pa. As she boarded, a flight attendant began yelling at her because she was carrying too many bags. Even after surrendering her excess luggage, the crewmember continued to harangue her. Finally, Garza asked for the attendant’s name – at which point she and her entire family were shown the door. “He said if I did not leave the aircraft immediately, he would have security physically remove me and have me arrested,” she told me. (Delta refused to comment on the incident.)
Then there’s the John Kish incident. Kish got kicked off a recent AirTran Airways flight because a crewmember accused him of “not apologizing” to her after she claimed that he bumped her with his bag. Interestingly, the flight he was ejected from wasn’t the flight that his alleged offense took place on. It was a connecting flight that the same crew transferred to. When the crewmember saw him at the gate, she waited for him to board the aircraft and stood by his seat. As he approached her, she said, “Get off my plane.” (AirTran had no comment on the incident.)
This is neither heroic, nor professional behavior. But it is increasingly common. No one knows how many travelers are removed from commercial flights every year. I checked with the Federal Aviation Administration, and it doesn’t release those statistics. However, airline officials admit – and anecdotal evidence confirms – that these aren’t isolated cases. “We’ve done a complete 180-degree turn, from an attitude of ‘the customer is always right’ to ‘the customer is not always right,’” one airline spokesman told me. “We started backing the flight crews in disputes with passengers.”
In an age of air rage, hijackings and shoe-bombers trained by al-Qaeda, no one would question a policy of backing a flight crew. It’s how the cabin attendants operate within the parameters of these rules that’s telling: many of them acting as airborne autocrats with the absolute power to remove any passenger for any reason.
But airline crewmembers are neither heroes nor villains. They are just confused, and so are we. The president and the public think of them as surrogate air marshals. Many passengers still treat them like glorified waiters. And their employers saddle them with the duty of both purser and peacekeeper – a dual mandate they can’t possibly fulfill.
Maybe it’s time to clarify the role of the flight attendant. Has the time come to train cabin crew in hand-to-hand combat? To deputize them as law enforcement officers? Even to arm them? Once those questions are answered, then these frivolous passenger ejections are far less likely to happen, because an aircraft’s crew will know how to handle – and how not to handle – an unruly passenger.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I can see that this commentary is quite dated, however, as they are still online and viewable, I can not help, but post a reply. As for clarification to the final paragraph asking if Flight Attendants should be trained in hand to hand combat? To deputize them as law enforcement officers? Even to arm them? Sadly, they have. Who else is going to do it when away from the ground? We turned in our pill box hats and serving jackets for flex cuffs. As for armed flight attendants, no, armed pilots, yes. It is very true that flight attendants go over the top, but we all do when pushed to far. In some instances, the customer can not be right, if they were, all hell would break loose. Flight attendants go to work knowing that any person on a plane could be an FAA inspector. If, any thing small or big is not correct in the eyes of the FAA, the flight attendant will be fined ( normally $1,000 to start with ), and no customer is right for if they expect a flight attendant to take the fall for them so they can do as they wish and be ” a customer “. May I ask where it is you have read that flight attendants are currently still there as service people only? Take into count the amount of short flights that fly without a scheduled service, but yet still have flight attendants. It is Safety, then service that we are onboard for. Look at the many airlines which fly in Asia where their crews give me highest service available. They seem to have the highest death tolls in survivable crashes. There are a lot actions that people fail to admit to and just omit during a complaint, or possible, writers omit. For example, Akiko Mitsui’s case on a CO flight. It seems that she was still trying to stow her bag while the plane was in route to the runway because ” The plane returned to the terminal “. Normally, all bags end up getting put away 5 min’s before the plane leaves the terminal. So what happened between the 15 min’s from door close to taxi? She just stood in the aisle trying to stow her bag?
In addition. Whenever there is a tragedy and peoples lives are lost, or when someone saves the life of someone, you should never, ever, speak down about them, or their profession. That is shameful, and you should learn not to attach events that evolve death or the possibility of to your personal feelings. Am I to believe that all writers are heartless and have lost their minds because of you? You seem to portray that with flight attendants. I understand freedom of speech, but sometimes you have to put aside expressing your freedoms to avoid being idiot.