An infrequent flyer who had no ideas the ramifications of approaching the front of the aircraft while it was taxiing?

You know, we see these people every day at security... after how many years they are shocked they can't bring liquids on the aircraft.

We see inflight, passengers trying to open the cockpit door because they think it is the lavatory door.

We see, after 10 years of "No forming a line or standing at the front of the aircraft for any reason," people who still think that they are the exception to the rule.

We see after decades, people jump out of their seat on arrival and start retrieving bags from the overhead bins while the aircraft is still taxiing.

I am not saying these people are stupid. I am saying that there is still, ten years after 9/11, a large portion of the traveling public who think their actions, since they are not terrorists, are completely normal.

As I shake my head in disbelief every day at security, I remind myself: "These people don't work for an airline. These people don't go through airport security 20 times a month. These people don't realize what they are doing is going to be considered a security threat. These people don't realize that since they, themselves, know they are not terrorists that their actions are considered so by airline employees."

It's like the passenger who says: "I am just going to stand here, at the front of the aircraft, in front of the cockpit door, as my 5-year-old uses the restroom, okay?"

They just don't know.

What was this passenger thinking? They were thinking..."I don't fly all the time, we're on the ground, I don't want to wait for 20 rows of people ahead of me to deplane and I don't see why a crew member would get all up in arms just because I grabbed my carryons and headed to the front of the plane so I could avoid the rush."

Trust me, I get as infuriated as everyone else on anet when I see and deal with these people... but then I tell myself: "They DONT see themselves as terror threats and they don't see why we may.... and they are more used to the check-out line at Target or Wal-Mart than they are of being aboard a commercial aircraft."

Cut them some slack. What was he thinking? He was thinking that he doesn't think he is a terrorist, the crew members should know better, and at the local grocery store you jocky for position in the shortest line.... so let me grab my crap and try to get off here before anyone else.

People who don't fly every week, people who aren't employed by an airline, people who don't read anet and know the mindset of aviation geeks... have no idea why doing what they did was wrong. They just don't.

You tell me that your second-cousin on your grandmothers side who has saved all his life for a vacation to Jamaica and has dealt with TSA lines, airline check in, customs, etc... who thinks "I don't look like a terrorist," would not do the same thing.

What was he thinking? That nothing about his behavior was wrong and he was just trying to beat the rush to the front of the plane.

Why didn't he stop when the FAs said something? The same reason someone with 16 items doesn't stop when the cashier in the "15 items of less" line says: "Sir, you have too many items." They don't see what the big deal is and don't think the rule applies to them.

Are they right? Of course not.... but people have forgotten 9/11 and passengers today think flight attendants have less authority than the man working at a gas station store who says "No shoes, No shirt, No service!" They forgot 9/11, they don't think flight attendants have any authority, they don't realize the authority crew members have.... and that's through no fault of their own. Look at how the media portrays flight attendants.... waiters and waitresses in the sky.

If I were not a flight attendant, I don't wonder if my own family wouldn't think the same.

It's just ignorance.... and no insult intended (because I would plead ignorance to what a nuclear scientist did) of people who don't deal with our industry and environment every day.

And when Ma and Pa Kettle (and I do personally despise that term) do NOT see what they are doing as disrespect to their fellow passengers...what then?

I think it is pretty disrespectful when I am in line at the grocery store with a cart full of items and the lane next to me opens up and the person who was in line BEHIND me jumps over to the newly opened line.

I think it is pretty disrespectful when I am walking through the mall and someone is wearing a t-shirt that says: "F-CK" on it, yet no one from mall security stops them and tells them to change their attire because they may have actually purchased that very same shirt in that very same mall.

I think it is disrespectful when I hear someone at the gas station pump use the "F" word on their cell phone while they are pumping gas next to me.....

Yeah, it is totally disrespectful.... but in all of those situations.... no one is going to say something to them.

These are the exact same people who board commercial airline flights.

The same rude, obnoxious behavior that is allowed in most other places is NOT allowed onboard commercial aircraft but these people are uneducated enough to realize that! How can you blame them? Trust me... I DONT LIKE IT... but I can see how it happens.

If I am at breakfast at a local Cracker Barrel and someone doesn't like how their food is cooked.... what are the consequences of them berating the sever, storming into the kitchen and acting like an idiot and then being so upset that they cut in front of line to pay so they can get out of the restauraunt as quickly as they can?

I am not saying that behavior is polite or politically correct or the right thing to do... but it IS how people behave and there are NO consequences.... then those same people board an aircraft and think they can behave the same way.

People just don't realize that causing a confrontation with a crew member, raising their voice with a crew member, barging towards the front of the plane, ignoring social etiquette or posted rules on an airplane are COMPLETELY different than their behavior on the ground.

I am not condoning the behavior of people like that. Not at all. But I am trying to explain, as a crew member, how I see people, uneducated people who are completely ignorant of airline policy, thinking that a commercial airliner has the same behavior standards of the restaurant or retail establishments they normally frequent.

You walk into any restaurant or retail establishment and act like an idiot and you may be asked to behave or the employees may just accept the behavior.... but what are the consequences? Not much. You do it on an airliner....which many people nowadays just see as another retail establishment.....they don't realize it's not the same thing.... that the "rules" are not just there to be polite but have federal consequences if they don't obey... that the flight attendants actually have some authority.... people don't get that.

And when I have an issue on the aircraft... they won't turn off their electronics, they won't turn off their cell phones, they think they are exempt from standing at the front of the airplane to wait while their kid uses the bathroom because they would be waiting right outside if their kid was using the bathroom at a mall.... I TELL THEM EXACTLY THAT: "You may not realize it, but this is a commercial aircraft, not a retail establishment, and the rules here are a lot different."

For the most part... they just don't realize that.

When I first read the original post that this was a flight from Jamaica to Miami, I thought: "Leisure destination to Miami. This would NEVER happen on a USAirways or Delta Shuttle flight from Boston to LaGuardia. The clientele is totally different.... leisure traveler who think that an airliner is the flying equivilant of a 7-11 compared to seasoned, experienced business travelers."


And whos fault is that? In the United States, you can pretty much act or behave in any ignorant way in public establishment. Curse at the waiter/waitress, walk into a store barefoot, raise your voice at Target when you aren't happy with their return policy.... In most environments, that behavior, while looked down upon and considered devoid of all social tact... is still accepted.

I walk into my doctor's office and there is a sign that says "TURN CELL PHONES OFF," yet half the waiting room is talking on their phones. What are the consequences? Nothing.

I walk into the 7-11 that says "No shoes, no shirt, no service," but we are a mile from the lake and half the people in there are barefoot or shirtless buying beer..... no consequences.

How can you blame these people for not realizing than a commercial airliner is different? It's America... rules don't apply.... until you are suddenly on an airliner.

I am not justifying their behavior.... but how can we expect people who see air travel as something they paid for and nothing more than a flying retail establishment obey the rules when so few other places actually enforce the rules.

Trust me... as a flight attendant.... I despise the fact that US citizens feel that they are the consumer and they are paying for a product and they can treat an aircraft as their local 7-11, Target, Applebee's or Gap. I do. But that is how it is.

We have trained the traveling public in the US to think of airlines as nothing more than a retail product and airline employees as nothing more than retail employees.

A personal story.... working a flight, we hit severe turbulence. Turbulence to the level of galley supplies falling off the galley counters. Coke cans falling onto the floor and crew members unable to walk in the cabin. Some of the worst turbulence I have ever experienced.

As I struggled to get into my jumpseat, I insisted that a woman standing in the galley waiting for the lavatory return to her seat. I said: "Ma'am, you need to take a seat NOW!"

Her response: "I need to pee!" I said: "No, you need to sit down!"

When we landed, she was so irate that I demanded she take a seat for HER safety, that she spoke to a Customer Service Supervisor and told her: "That punk-*** kid who thinks he has some authority tried to tell me that I needed to sit down!"

That's the level of authority crew members have in the US.... me telling her to sit down when it was truly dangerous for anyone to be walking around made me a "punk-... kid who thought I had authority."

In her eyes, I had no more authority than an employee at Banana Republic telling her not to throw folded shirts on the floor or a server at Friday's telling her she couldn't get the weekday lunch special on a weekend.

I am not trying to insult these people, but merely trying to say....in the US, people are simply ignorant about crew members and rules. They don't think rules apply to them and they think that crew members and announcements and rules pertaining to safety and security do not apply because they don't apply anywhere else in the US.

It is a cultural thing....and I can see why someone thought nothing of jumping up on taxi, as was originally posted, and trying to get off the plane first.

I say that because, again, the later comments about what really happened on this AA flight don't mirror the original account of events.