Worst Passenger of the Week: United Passenger Arrested for Killing a Walker

Every Friday, FlyerTalk looks back at the week’s most charming individuals. While there are always plenty of contenders for our Worst Passenger of the Week award, only one lucky flyer can take home the glory. Here are this week’s winners.

Honorable Mentions – The Name-Calling Celebs

Maybe it’s because everyone now can get their 15 minutes of fame, but the privileges of celebrity apparently aren’t what they used to be. Twice in the last week, well-known media personalities have felt the need to take to their respective bully pulpits to air grievances against Delta Airlines. While media darlings, Ann Coulter and Clay Travis, had some valid points about Delta Airlines’ customer service efforts (or lack of effort), both of the entertainers unfortunately also resorted to name-calling to make their cases.

Coulter’s issue with the airline came after the controversial political pundit was assigned to sit in a less desirable seat after paying a fee to choose her preferred seat on a flight. Travis’s complaint stemmed from the less than sympathetic treatment his family received after his nine-year-old son started to exhibit signs of having head lice during a recent transatlantic flight.

Coincidentally, both of the VIP flyers chose to rather insultingly refer to Delta Airlines flight attendants as “Nurse Ratchet” and “Nurse Rached” respectively. Based on Travis’s more careful and precise spelling, a case could be made that he was simply making a nuanced literary allusion to the cruel and unfeeling foil of the Ken Kesey novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, whereas Coulter’s Nurse Ratchet quip comes off as just rude.

Delta Airlines officials seem to agree. The airline responded to Coulter’s Twitter tantrum with a brief Twitter lecture admonishing the celebrity, “Your insults about our customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.”

Third Place – Just Hang Up the Phone, Jacquees

Lately, it seems almost as if hip-hop artists have made a point of getting kicked off of commercial airline flights in order to establish some very specific street cred bona fides. The key to pulling this now all-too-common publicity stunt is apparently to remain cordial with crew members while being escorted from the plane, but to publicly rant about the airline and its employees afterwards (ideally on a hastily shot cell phone video quickly posted on social media).

Rappers Offset, Young Thug and Vic Mensa each exploited this formula flawlessly. If, however, singer Jacquees was attempting to earn the same sort of PR coup this week on a Delta Airlines flight, he may have fumbled the ball.

Jacquees started strong by allegedly refusing to end a phone call so that the plane could take off. Unfortunately, the singer made a series of miscalculations following a very promising start.

First, the entertainer made the mistake of letting a fellow passenger get the better of him on video footage of the incident. A seat mate (who was less than thrilled about the plane returning to the gate so that the trouble-making singer could be escorted off) offered the musician the salutation “Thanks ***hole!” as he was being led from the flight.

The recording artist also chose the wrong week to pick a fight with Delta Airlines. The legacy carrier had already been publicly feuding with much better-known celebrities for days by the time Jacquees arrived on the scene; consequently, his big news ended up more or less lost in the shuffle.

Finally, it turns out that the crooner who is famous for singing the lines, “Always worried ’bout them other hoes and you’ll be on me when the money flows” was not in fact on the phone with a ho at all when he ran afoul of FAA regulations. By the hip-hop artist’s own admission, he was ejected from the flight after refusing to end a call with his mom.

The Runner-Up – “Luke Give Us Your Arm, Otherwise We’re Going to Taser You Mate”

When it comes to prescription medications, ensuring a proper dosage can be critically important especially when traveling. The cautionary tale of Qantas passenger Luke Taylor might help to drive this point home by example.

Taylor claims that his bad behavior on a flight from Perth Airport (PER) to Brisbane Airport (BNE) was the result of a bad reaction to a new medication. Taylor’s in-flight antics were disruptive enough that the captain made the decision to return to PER where the prescription drug-addled passenger was arrested.

There is good reason to give Taylor the benefit of the doubt when he says an unintentional altered state caused by a bit of bad medicine was to blame for his outlandish performance in-flight. He otherwise gives the appearance of being a legitimately good bloke.

“I was just on some medication my doctor had given me, so umm obviously that wasn’t sitting quite well with me,” Taylor told reporters Wednesday following his initial court hearing on Wednesday. “I’m sorry if I did upset anyone last night, ah yeah apologies.”

Footage of Taylor’s arrest shows him remaining remarkably respectful even as he determinedly attempted to resist arrest. Perhaps, this is why the arresting officers showed exceptional restraint and patience with the unruly flyer. At one point during the recording, Australian Federal Police (AFP) can be heard desperately trying to reason with the stubborn, but rather jovial passenger. “Come on stop resisting, give us your arm Luke,” officers beseech the 38-year-old. “Luke give us your arm, otherwise we’re going to taser you mate.”

The Winner – Told Exactly Where to Stowe It and How

All parties involved seem to concede that a language barrier may have contributed to the pre-flight disagreement on board a United Airlines flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Two passengers were reportedly removed from the flight prior to departure after the mother and daughter refused to relocate a carry-on bag from under a seat to an overhead bin.

The airline says that a flight attendant made the request because the bag in question was partially blocking the aisle in violation of FAA regulations. When the passengers refused to comply and instead started to argue with the cabin crew member, police were called on the woman described as being in her eighties and her 53-year-old daughter.

“During the boarding process of United flight 1121, from Seattle to Houston, two customers did not follow crew instructions,” United Airlines told local media outlets in a statement. “For the safety and security of our customers and crew, law enforcement was requested by the flight crew. After speaking with these two customers, they voluntarily deplaned.”

The mother and daughter were taken to an office at the airport to discuss the matter, but, according to police, the daughter became upset at some point and threw her mother’s walker. The gesture (which despite the language barrier was a crystal clear method of communication) resulted in the daughter’s arrest.