Practical Travel Safety Issues - My Wife Was Assaulted on a Delta Flight in Front of a Useless Flight Delta Flight Att

Yesterday my wife was flying into MSP from DTW and was a little clumsy getting her roller board down. In the presence of flight attendant, the guy behind her starting screaming at her hysterically and openly RAMMED her getting off the plane. The stewardess just gave a look like he was a jerk. The guy continued to scream at her getting off the plane and they just sat there.

I was in DTW the entire time and may just be steaming, but I've been mad about for 24 hours so I thought I'd toss it out there. Should Delta have intervened?

What do you think the FA should have done?

The original version of my post cited a federal statute making it a felony if it is take place on an airplane and how he would get a three point enhancement under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines if he tried to ignore an order detaining him. (You can then close the jet bridge before he gets to the other side).

I recognized that I am an angry spouse and pulled that analysis down, but this probably isn't the guy's first time or last and assaulting a fifty year old woman just seems over the top.

Any reason you didn't call the police?

Probably the fact that I was in Detroit and she was in Minnesota and didn't learn about it until half an hour after it happened. The airline has the power to detain someone in the way that a passenger doesn't.

The airline has the power to detain someone in the way that a passenger doesn't.

The airline has no power to detain any one.

Probably the fact that I was in Detroit and she was in Minnesota and didn't learn about it until half an hour after it happened. The airline has the power to detain someone in the way that a passenger doesn't.

Any reason she didn't call the police?

Yesterday my wife was flying into MSP from DTW and was a little clumsy getting her roller board down. In the presence of flight attendant, the guy behind her starting screaming at her hysterically and openly RAMMED her getting off the plane. The stewardess just gave a look like he was a jerk. The guy continued to scream at her getting off the plane and they just sat there.

I was in DTW the entire time and may just be steaming, but I've been mad about for 24 hours so I thought I'd toss it out there. Should Delta have intervened?

Your wife was the victim, and she did nothing at the time ... so what do you expect Delta to have done? Had she stood her ground and demanded the FA summon security, then that would have been a whole different story. But she didn't, did she?

You can't blame Delta for not reacting when your wife did not ask for help.

What do you think the FA should have done?

If your wife had taken a stand the FA would have to step in to keep the deplaning going?
Yes difficult to do this in this day and age, never know what a "psycho" would do ?

Yesterday my wife was flying into MSP from DTW and was a little clumsy getting her roller board down. In the presence of flight attendant, the guy behind her starting screaming at her hysterically and openly RAMMED her getting off the plane. The stewardess just gave a look like he was a jerk. The guy continued to scream at her getting off the plane and they just sat there.

I was in DTW the entire time and may just be steaming, but I've been mad about for 24 hours so I thought I'd toss it out there. Should Delta have intervened?
What was the police response when your wife called them as the victim?

Yesterday my wife was flying into MSP from DTW and was a little clumsy getting her roller board down. In the presence of flight attendant, the guy behind her starting screaming at her hysterically and openly RAMMED her getting off the plane. The stewardess just gave a look like he was a jerk. The guy continued to scream at her getting off the plane and they just sat there.

I was in DTW the entire time and may just be steaming, but I've been mad about for 24 hours so I thought I'd toss it out there. Should Delta have intervened?
Sounds like that guy forgot to take his Xanax.

The airline's under no obligation to detain anyone in that circumstance. I know you put "RAMMED" in all-caps, but I wonder if it wasn't more of a bump or a shove. If your wife had fallen over and/or been injured, the airline may have been more inclined to do something about it, but people get bumped and shoved out of the way in airports all the time.

If it had really bothered your wife as much as it seems to be bothering you, why wouldn't she have pointed the man out to the GA and asked for airport police to detain him so she could press charges?

I'm as protective of my wife as you seem to be, and when someone legitimately wrongs her and I'm not around to handle it, I tend to steam. Fact is, though, being bumped or shoved by someone who's clearly in a hurry is not an unusual occurrence, and one that's best let go of in the interest of keeping your blood pressure low and avoiding a heart attack.

It would be a different story, in my opinion, if this had happened in the air. No coppers or security people up there.

It would be a different story, in my opinion, if this had happened in the air.Or indeed at all (as presented). Hearsay and/or exaggeration maybe ?

Or indeed at all (as presented). Hearsay and/or exaggeration maybe ?

My wife doesn't exaggerate. She is scurrilously honest in her descriptions. Obviously I am a hearsay relator. I made it clear that I was a hearsay relator. If it is hearsay, however, it is admissible hearsay since it was still brought on with the excitement of the event and would be admissible as an excited utterance. Further, there are a number of cases that would allow a statement 1/2 an hour after the event in as an excited utterance exception to the ban on the hearsay rule, but either way I would be a horrible witness. I am her husband.

My wife is platinum and has lived in crowded cities. She knows a bump from a ram and in this case I believe that the stewardess did as well. I also think that the guy waiting for her in the jetway to scream at her again negates the claim that it was a bump of the nature that everyone on this forum has experienced.

The statute 19 USC 46506 extends federal jurisdiction to airplanes and my read of the statute does not end the jurisdiction at the gate. The fact that he would deny it makes it a fact question, but in my fact pattern the stewardess saw the incident and if witness statements were taken others would have presumably been taken as well. Since the assault would be a class B misdemeanor, I don't believe that there is a right to jury trial (six months or less), but he has a right to a trial by judge on the issue if he wants. Failure to take action encourages this behavior.

I know nothing can be done now, but I wasn't exaggerating. I was careful to cut things the other way.

Why do people grill and question a poster when they relate an incident like this? Why can't you take this guy's story at face value? His wife got physically and verbally attacked no matter how light the shove was. No one has the right to purposely shove me on a plane or any where else. If this was your Mother, wife, daughter, sister you would probably be steamed too! The OP has the right to be upset.

Why didn't she report the attack, who knows? Should the FA have intervened, maybe but really what could she have effectively done? I have had my share of unprovoked bullying on planes and in airports due to aggressive people. If it's on a flight I usually get the FA to reseat me, if I were deplaning like the OP's wife I would just remove myself from the situation instead of calling the police. I get away from crazy as far and fast as I can. In this case they were deplaning so she could easily escape. Sometimes it is easier to move on than it is to file a report. I have filed reports and NOTHING happened except for a huge waste of my valuable time.

You're probably right.

Curious, what does being clumsy in getting her bag down entail? Did she apologize to the guy?

And just because something merits the hearsay exception in a court of law doesn't mean it's true.

Any reason you didn't call the police?

Any reason your wife didn't call the police? If I read correctly, SHE was the one there.

Oh God. Here we go again. She was slow and didn't execute the maneuver with perfect speed. She has a bad rotator cuff. She neither bumped him or hit him. She just didn't move with the speed that individual wanted. As to an apology, he had launched in to a series of names immediately so I don't think so. Was an apology warranted? I'm not sure on those facts, but knowing her personality she apologizes easily.

As to the crack about a hearsay exception not making something true, please reread the part about the fact that I said that I wouldn't be a great witness but I never proposed my testimony would be part of the Government's case. I would also point out that just because it is hearsay doesn't make me wrong.

As to the next post, she couldn't detain the guy but the airline could but as I posted above MissDallasFW is probably right. It may be smarter to let the issue die.

What I don't get is why everyone is all over me on this one. Do people honestly thinking I am lying? To what end?

So now we're going to get both the airlines and law enforcement authorities involved in every push, shove or ramming (which does not cause serious injury) that takes place on a plane or in an airport?

I don't doubt your description that she was RAMMED. However, notwithstanding that, if the victim does not complain, airline personnel have no idea that the person may have experienced injury.

And if the person did not experience some type of serious injury from the RAMMING, the airline certainly isn't going to do anything about it. (Nor, in my opinion, should they.)

Law enforcement authorities getting involved? Never going to happen. Not on your fact pattern. They simply don't have time to criminalize and deal with every push, shove or ramming on a plane or in an airport.

Had the person pushed your wife down and broken her hip, yeah, they would get involved, and I could see the guy getting charged.

I know nothing can be done now, but I wasn't exaggerating. I was careful to cut things the other way.

Again, if it was really such a big deal, why didn't she point the body-slammer out to the GA after deplaning and ask for the airport police? She had a perfect witness in the FA, and if it really happened as she claims it did, with the other pax maliciously "ramming" her then "screaming" at her the whole way down the jetway, she had a slam-dunk case for assault.

Just take a deep breath and let it go. I know venting feels good, but your wife clearly hasn't suffered any permanent emotional damage over this, so why should you give yourself a coronary by stewing over it?

What I don't get is why everyone is all over me on this one. Do people honestly thinking I am lying? To what end?

Nobody thinks you are lying. Overreacting perhaps, but not lying.

Stuff like this happens while traveling, and as long as your wife was not injured, that's what matters most. Indeed, it is best to let the matter die.

As pointed out above, I thought the prior poster was right telling me to let it go and calm down. If I could lock this thread, I would.

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