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OJgate: Asking For Orange Juice May Violate Federal Law / AA Investigating FA Helen

OJgate: Asking For Orange Juice May Violate Federal Law / AA Investigating FA Helen

 
Old Dec 15, 2009, 10:03 pm
  #151  
 
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Originally Posted by MrPink
Part of the media hype is that the story is so ridiculous on its face, which works out great for them. An FA freaking out over a supposed orange juice request? It's like it's made for local TV news.
It wasn't just local. It was on the FOX News Network, too.

FOX & Friends video

The spoke to the OJ passenger, as well as the two witnesses seated behind him.

The OJ passenger noted that if he truly was disruptive, threatening or intimidating, why would the flight attendant want to have a private one-on-one conversation with him right up near the cockpit door.
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Old Dec 15, 2009, 11:12 pm
  #152  
 
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Thumbs down

Originally Posted by freeupgrade
This FA really needs to rethink her career, and probably should not be flying at all.
Why should she? She has no incentive in her job to do so. Late 50's; probably has tons of seniority. From reports, she apparently has learned from two previous incidents that her union will go to bat to defend her right to do her job atrociously, and there's nothing AA can apparently do about it.

It sounds to me that AA and their customers just need to put up with the lady.
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 4:56 am
  #153  
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Ok, there is a FA out there thats not too happy in life and has a few loose screws. People are like that everywhere. Assuming the facts are true, or near true, it is very doubtful that you will ever have her as a FA. Hopefully, the investigative system will work properly.

Could be much worse, you could have someone like that as a boss (I did years ago and it was no fun).
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 6:58 am
  #154  
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Originally Posted by PDX-PLT
her union will go to bat to defend her right to do her job atrociously, and there's nothing AA can apparently do about it.
And that, which is true, is atrocious in itself, but it's really all about what AA chooses to do and how much it allows the union run its business (quality of work clauses can--and should--be written in a contract).
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 7:12 am
  #155  
 
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Originally Posted by newyorkgeorge
Ok, there is a FA out there thats not too happy in life and has a few loose screws. People are like that everywhere. Assuming the facts are true, or near true, it is very doubtful that you will ever have her as a FA. Hopefully, the investigative system will work properly.

Could be much worse, you could have someone like that as a boss (I did years ago and it was no fun).
You've hit the nail on the head.

One thing our society doesn't deal very well with is mental health disorders. Unlike other medical problems, there aren't lab tests that can be done to diagnose and treat most psychological problems. Assuming the reports are accurate, seems like Helen had a psychotic break and needs therapy, treatment, and possibly monitoring for resolution of her underlying issues. Hopefully for everyone's sake, the issue is identified and resolved. Hopefully Helen will receive the appropriate treatment if this is the case and hopefully she'll have continuing employment where these issues don't continue to happen.
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 8:04 am
  #156  
 
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I don't think he's trying to protect his frequent flyer miles as much as demonstrate how much he flies....

just my 2 cents
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 8:41 am
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by emma dog
seems like Helen had a psychotic break and needs therapy, treatment, and possibly monitoring for resolution of her underlying issues.
She may or may not have underlying mental health issues, but a psychotic break?
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 8:59 am
  #158  
 
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Originally Posted by 25milesfromhome
She may or may not have underlying mental health issues, but a psychotic break?
Who knows... we weren't there. But from Wikipedia:

Signs and symptoms

People with psychosis may have one or more of the following: hallucinations, delusions, or thought disorder, as described below.
...
Psychosis may involve delusional beliefs, some of which are paranoid in nature....
Given the descriptions of what happened, I can genuinely believe that Helen had a break with reality. I have a very hard time believing that someone who is of sound mind would have had a situation like this escalate to this level. Assuming the story as reported is accurate, this isn't just someone having a bad day... this is someone having a very serious mental health issue.
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 9:08 am
  #159  
 
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Could you imagine what it must be like for all of the other flight attendants at AA named Helen, a rather common name?

Either they get some new found authority as many pax and some FTers will be scared, or the just keep smiling and telling everyone "I'm not THAT Helen"
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 10:31 am
  #160  
 
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Originally Posted by JSteele
Could you imagine what it must be like for all of the other flight attendants at AA named Helen, a rather common name?

Either they get some new found authority as many pax and some FTers will be scared, or the just keep smiling and telling everyone "I'm not THAT Helen"
We love to think we are a bigger population than we are, but my GUESS is that, on average, fewer than one person per flight is aware of this story.
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 10:54 am
  #161  
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Arrow OJ in AA is OK!

After further discussions among the AA and Newsstand Moderators, this thread will remain in the AA Forum, and the earlier thread that was moved to Newsstand will be returned here and prepended to this thread.

The original thread involved discussion of a non-firsthand account in an external article, of a situation that was not particularly AA-specific, other than that the incident happened to have happened on an AA flight, and was, thus, moved to Newsstand. However, now that AA is officially investigating this incident, the moderators feel it apropos to host the discussion here in the AA Forum.

We realize that members may agree or disagree with both this and the previous decision, but sometimes the moderators have to make judgment calls on borderline cases. In this case, both the change in events, and the clear desire to discuss the incident in this forum (witnessed by the posts in this thread and the fact that the original article was posted here several times) have led to this reversal.

I hope that this post clarifies both our rationale and the underlying process that goes into such decisions. Members having further questions may contact us by PM.

As a final note, it is our hope that the discussion will remain on-topic so that the thread can remain in the AA forum, rather than having to be moved eventually to, for example, OMNI.

/Moderator
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 11:05 am
  #162  
 
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I had a psychotic FA on a US flight in 2006, and her name was... Helen too. Is there any way to find out if the AA Helen used to work for US? On a flight from Dublin as I was trying to leave my carry-on behind a seat in C class, an FA told me to put it in a bin. When this standard carry-on would not fit in a small bin of 767, I asked her rather brusqely to check it in, and she accused me of acting weird and wanted to offload me, but was overruled by ground staff. During the flight I tried to get her ID number and she became hysterical. A pilot came to talk to us, and treated us to champagne. I wrote her up and was sent 2x 400$ vouchers. But during the whole flight DUB-PHL I was wandering if someone will meet us at the gate. Hysterical Helen!
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 11:45 am
  #163  
 
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Originally Posted by LilZeppelin
I had a psychotic FA on a US flight in 2006, and her name was... Helen too. Is there any way to find out if the AA Helen used to work for US? On a flight from Dublin as I was trying to leave my carry-on behind a seat in C class, an FA told me to put it in a bin. When this standard carry-on would not fit in a small bin of 767, I asked her rather brusqely to check it in
What's that mean? BEHIND A SEAT. was it a rollaboard? Many dont fit UNDER a seat. Because it prevents egress to the aisle. And, it wouldnt fit in an overhead? sounds TOO big.

Last edited by dstan; Dec 17, 2009 at 10:46 am Reason: repaired broken quote
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 2:44 pm
  #164  
 
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Originally Posted by NYC96
What's that mean?
It means that 3.5 years ago a US flight attendant has similarly over-reacted to a passenger and her name happened to be Helen. I would not be surprised if that is the same individual, however, we will never know.
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Old Dec 16, 2009, 3:07 pm
  #165  
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We know. AA hasn't hired any flight attendants in a long, long time (maybe since before 2001).
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