Originally Posted by
FullFare
The woman said she "didn't hear" the FA. OK. But it was said she was on her phone and the FA had tried to communicate with her 4 times, or such.
Her being on the phone aside, she kept pleading that she "didn't hear".
Got me to thinking: my mom is stone deaf, hard of hearing, and is a disaster if she doesn't put in her hearing aids. How much aggressiveness can a FA have on those who are hearing impaired? It's often hard to pick out a hearing impaired person on sight. What threshold should FA's use to boot pax off the plane who turn out to be hearing impaired and don't appear to respond to commands/admonishment right away?
Just curious.
My opinion, after seeing the video and the Washington Post stuff, is that the AA flight attendant blew it and overreacted. Scary that they can throw you off in a setting like this.
I have witnessed a FA getting testy with a deaf person for not responding to instructions. Eventually, the FA violently pulled hard on the poor woman's arm and demanded her attention. Luckily, there was someone traveling with the woman, who came out of the lav just in time to tell the FA that she was deaf. As upset as the FA was, I was sure this woman was going to be tossed, but everything worked out OK in that case.
FA overreaction is common. Vindictiveness is sometimes the only motivation for some of their actions after a perceived slight. The pilots seem to always side with the FAs in any dispute, so don't ever lip-off to a FA, and always respond with alacrity to their instructions.