Originally Posted by
rickg523
What's the rule around here?
In any case where a passenger and carrier dispute the facts of an incident, the airline is always truthful and the passenger is always lying?
Because these two versions cannot both be true.
Except for the "Have you been drinking?" remark.
Which the passenger admitted before Jet Blue ever commented. And he included why he made that comment. Which to me is a throwaway. Some here consider it actionable. I find that laughable.
To me considering the cop's statements, I'm not buying anything more than yet another FA deciding to overreact to a perceived slight.
In the end, all these incidents and the reporting of them are simply the inevitable result of industry consolidation and segmentation to the point of near monopoly. John D Rockefeller became American media's ultimate robber baron by the same dynamic.
Well,
my rule is to try to determine what facts are available. And here's one;
B6 Flight 611 JFK-LAS is an A321, and
the video clearly shows the family sitting in Row 34. That's the last row. The overhead bin above them clearly has a sign on it denoting safety and handicap equipment. This is verifiable from the video and the seat map on the Jetblue website. So, Jetblue is telling the truth about the overhead bin, and likely about the genesis of the incident.
The passenger said he moved the cake multiple times. We can safely assume that he was told that you cannot place anything in the overhead that blocks the safety equipment, and - when he moved it - it was not to the satisfaction of the flight attendant. We have no way of knowing what was said, other than that the passenger "asked" if the FA had been drinking.
We also know that police were called, and
the police determined that nothing occurred that would justify an arrest. In other words, that nothing criminal had taken place.
That doesn't mean that one side or the other is telling the truth. Nor does it absolve either of blame. It just means they didn't believe this was a police matter. (They also saw the UA video of Dr Dao, most likely) And the airline still maintains the right to kick you off a flight - for cause - even if your actions do not result in an arrest.
We also know that this happened May 3rd, and we didn't find out about it until this weekend, after the family reached out to Al Sharpton. Read into that what you will.
We don't know whether this was a full flight, nor do we know how many carry-ons the family had. We don't know if other passengers were being asked to gate check carry-ons. We've seen the family's video, and we've heard a reply from Jetblue, but little or nothing from other passengers on the plane so far.
I imagine that will change, and will help clarify what happened.
None of us knows what happened in the exchange or exchanges between the passenger and the flight attendants, but I think it's fair to assume that Jetblue's version of genesis of this is true. And that it was moved multiple times. And that the passenger "asked" if the FA had been drinking. Beyond that, we await additional eyewitness accounts.