EWR AS F/A yelling evacuate
Sep 2, 2019, 10:21 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: San Francisco/Bangkok
Programs: Alaska 75K United 1K
Posts: 1,409
Sep 2, 2019, 11:30 pm
#2
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 7,875
This illustrates the ridiculous of TSA. I thought they were supposed to screen people? If so, how would the men have a gun? Or bomb?
Sep 2, 2019, 11:30 pm
#3
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 7,875
Oh, and since we don't know anything about the men yet, let's see if the gate agent actually knew the most dangerous type of men in America. If these were 2 white men.
Sep 3, 2019, 8:36 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Neither here nor there
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The article says the two men were later allowed to board.
Sep 3, 2019, 9:21 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: AS MVPG, 1MM
Posts: 377
I know that speculation is the food for Flyertalk but I will wait until the facts come out prior to having an opinion.
Sep 3, 2019, 9:26 am
#6
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Key West
Programs: DL Silver, AA EXP, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 401
If this situation resulted in a missed connection or some other sort of travel misfortune based on this employee's apparently erroneous suspicion ( the threat boarded after) would Alaska have any liability? Not just on Alaska but any airline?
Sep 3, 2019, 9:34 am
#7
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
And the ridiculousness of this paranoid AS employee...over-reacting and inciting panic because she thinks she's an FBI field agent or something. She should have simply called the police if she really thought the two men were suspicious and let them handle it according to procedure. It's a wonder no one got hurt from a trip, slip, or fall accident during the chaos - those were the real dangers.
Sep 3, 2019, 9:44 am
#8
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO
Programs: AS, UA, WN, IHG Diamond Elite, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Gold, CET 7*
Posts: 3,300
The mods should probably change the thread title as well since it was a GA that pulled the fire alarm as they were about to board and yelled for pax to evacuate, not an FA.
Sep 3, 2019, 9:47 am
#9
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 245
Does anyone have any idea what really happened? AFAICT, a GA freaked out over two men boarding for some reason and pulled the fire alarm.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
Sep 3, 2019, 9:52 am
#10
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
The linked SFGate article actually says that the fire alarm was pulled by an FA, but at the gate.
Sep 3, 2019, 10:10 am
#11
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO
Programs: AS, UA, WN, IHG Diamond Elite, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Gold, CET 7*
Posts: 3,300
Does anyone have any idea what really happened? AFAICT, a GA freaked out over two men boarding for some reason and pulled the fire alarm.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/09...es-terminal-a/
An earlier version may have, but it doesn't now.
Sep 3, 2019, 10:13 am
#12
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Neither here nor there
Programs: UA Slvr, DL Slvr, AA plt, HH LTD, MR tit/LTP at least two of those buy 10 get 1 free coffee cards
Posts: 3,448
Does anyone have any idea what really happened? AFAICT, a GA freaked out over two men boarding for some reason and pulled the fire alarm.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
Then they evacuated the plane. Is that the correct response for a fire alarm in a terminal?
Then somehow NYPD SWAT showed up? Wouldn’t that response have taken a while? I thought that the Port Authority handled normal policing at airports.
None of this seems like the normal response to a GA freaking out or a fire alarm, so she must have communicated something very specific to the police.
Sep 3, 2019, 11:55 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: San Francisco/Bangkok
Programs: Alaska 75K United 1K
Posts: 1,409
The airline employee tried to confront the men and then pulled a fire alarm, which led to the evacuation around 8:30 p.m., the authorities said. It was not immediately clear what had prompted the flight attendant to be suspicious of the men, who were later questioned by the police and then allowed to board.
Sep 3, 2019, 12:02 pm
#14
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO
Programs: AS, UA, WN, IHG Diamond Elite, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Gold, CET 7*
Posts: 3,300
The airline employee tried to confront the men and then pulled a fire alarm, which led to the evacuation around 8:30 p.m., the authorities said. It was not immediately clear what had prompted the flight attendant to be suspicious of the men, who were later questioned by the police and then allowed to board.
"As alarms rang out inside an empty Terminal A unattended bags lay scattered across the ground. Around 200 frightened passengers left them behind as they fled the airport following verbal instructions from the gate agent."
Sep 3, 2019, 12:02 pm
#15
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Alaska Airlines
Posts: 659
Still lots of unknowns and different points of views from articles. I'll save final judgement until a full report comes out but as a whole... it's better to be overly cautious these days. I think any final report will show that this was an over-reaction, everyone is on edge all the time these days... but you often hear survivors or witnesses after the fact talking about how something felt wrong, the person(s) were giving off bad vibes, acting oddly, etc... and no one intervened.
Maybe the FA/GA had a really strong sense of that? Plus one article says they tried to flee from the employee?
Maybe the FA/GA had a really strong sense of that? Plus one article says they tried to flee from the employee?
