oldpenny16

This story has been circulating around the DFW area for a few days.

I've been on the receiving end of an FA tirade. Not nice! I didn't deserve what was said to me. I didn't need to be put in my 'place'.

i_fly_AA

I know there are two sides to almost every story but I tend to believe that the events transpired as described. While most AA FA's are great, there are definitely a few that I've come across who wouldn't surprise me if they acted like this. Here are a couple more links that have additional info on this:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/4636235/

http://consumerist.com/2009/12/askin...deral-law.html

Paint Horse

oldpenny16 maybe basing some of his view on local news reports here in the DFW area which have reported on this quite a bit.

Blumie

I suspect most (all?) of us would agree that if the facts are as presented, this FA should have her wings clipped. But I also suspect that none of us has heard the FA's side of the story. It sounds to me like she did go batty and probably needs to be grounded, but I think it's irresponsible to jump to these kind of conclusions without, in fact, conducting an appropriate investigation.

fixedwingflyer

Did you happen to hear any evidence in her support in that news report or any other on this story? Seems like the better part of the pax in F were either conspiring against her by supporting this guy's side of things from the first minute or she was SERIOUSLY out of line. Let her have her day in court. It just doesn't sound good for her.

Blumie

The fact that it's been repeated multiple times on multiple media outlets doesn't give it any more credibility. How many media outlets reported that Richard Jewell was responsible for the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics? How many condemned the Duke lacrosse team for raping Crystal Gail Mangum?


How nice of you to make this FA pay based on how you were treated by other FAs.

eamus

Maybe - probably, even - she was seriously out of line. But to take that to:

without knowing her side of the story seems like a stretch. Maybe she shouldn't be flying because she has some personal issues, maybe she has developed a serious medical condition like a mental health disorder, maybe she had been felt up by Ralph Fiennes in the lavatory and was not in her right mind. Any number of explanations from the other side might apply, or might not. As Blumie said, we just don't know. What she deserves is the opportunity to explain herself and her actions, and in any case, to apologize to the passengers. Sounds like AA is giving her the former opportunity, I hope they give her the latter.

Bmoney

make sure you read the update with the actual flier's comments.

http://www.gadling.com/2009/12/12/ga...enger-respond/

Pretty interesting that based on his replies and now a formal investigation from AA that obviously this FA did something that crossed the line.

Non-NonRev

Exactly. Of course the accused FA should have due process to either substantiate or refute what she is charged with doing. However, she SHOULD be grounded until such process is completed (maybe she can clean lavs).....

And for anyone who doubts that an FA might actually treat a passenger this way, I witnessed almost the same scenario in 1990 on board an Eastern Airlines flight - an FA became verbally abusive towards a female passenger in F, and ended up having the captain (who remained in the cockpit) request EA security to have the police waiting on arrival. Several passengers, including the COO of a Fortune 500 company, remained after the flight to speak with the police and the EA security people. In the end, the passenger received apologizes from the police and the EA ground staff. We found out later that the FA, who was said to be bitter about the impending demise of EA, was finally fired - weeks before EA stoped flying in January 1991.

Spiff

This story was being broadcast at the gate on the TV yesterday at DFW.

Blumie

How is it obvious? Because of the vociferousness of the accuser? Because AA clearly would not investigate if she were not obviously guilty? What am I missing?

emma dog

I agree that it would be helpful if the OP referenced their statements since the news clip isn't consistent with what (s)he wrote.

As amazing as this story is, I am actually at a loss as to the discussion value of this story. Meaning, either the FA had a psychotic lapse in the flight and needs to be grounded or she didn't and just has some significant customer relations issue that has blown way out of proportion. Either way, IMHO it doesn't seem that there's a lot to be gained from a bunch of "I had a nasty FA when I flew ..." comments. I'm also not really into the drama of this story... seems to be a "fantastic" story that the media wants to chomp on and in reality is just something that AA needs to deal with internally.

FWAAA

I agree with you, but wouldn't that apply to quite a few threads on the AA forum? IMO, very few threads would survive that level of strict scrutiny.

fixedwingflyer

Blumie, what evidence would you like? I doubt they're going to pull the black box on this one. It will likely fall upon witness testimony, and that seems rather damning right now. Even AA is apologizing to this gentleman. Would they do that if he was in the wrong?

What would you like to see? A confession from the FA? A formal AA investigation report? Will those suffice as incontrovertible evidence? Probably not.

LoneStarMike

The OP most likely meant to link to this version of the story.

Well, it's also being discussed in Newsstand as well as Travel Safety/Security

I think the discussion value is that it's a PR Failure

Also, in the passenger's account (link posted by Bmoney the passenger notes (emphasis added)

He asks for orange juice, she launches into a one-minute tirade about how now is not the proper time in her service to ask for that, and then when he tells her she's being condescending, he gets slapped with a federal warning? That's an abuse of power, IMO.

The incident did make a pretty good Country & Western song, though.

AA Orange Juice Song