Originally Posted by
brewdog11
Had a new one back in November on DFW-LHR.
About 30 minutes before landing after the Bose headsets had been collected, the purser made a polite, non-accusatory announcement along the lines of "we are still missing one Bose headset. Please double check your seat and help us locate it."
Apparently it was not located, because the next announcement was soon to follow. It was still polite, but a bit more firm. She essentially said that the headset was still missing and that all items must be accounted for before pax can deplane (I forget the exact term she used in reference to inventory being complete before pax can deplane).
Another few minutes passed, and FAs were making continuous passes up and down the aisle. I had my own Bose headset and the FA asked to quickly take a glance at it to verify.
Finally, a much more stern announcement was made that essentially told us that we'd all be sitting on the tarmac until the missing headset was found. I'm guessing it was turned in because there were no more announcements and we deplaned without event at LHR.
Does AA have a SOP for when headsets go missing? This was the first time in quite a few international flights that I've ever witnessed it, and it was on a 77W so it's not like someone could take the headset and plug it into their iPhone.
I had a similar thing happen once too. Messages started out nice and kept getting more menacing as they couldn't find the missing headset. The last message (before they were found) was the police were going to board when we landed. I thought it was very heavy handed.
Based on what the Flight Attendants were saying, I think AA must have a very punitive process where the FA is charged for the lost set or something of that nature.
Oh and in the end the headset was found. I think it had fallen under a seat.
The flight attendants log an inventory sheet when they pass out the tablets and headsets so they shouldn't have to resort to this tactic if they properly filled it out and checked off the collected items.