AA Flight Attendants Calls Police When Confronted For Not Wearing Masks
 

I just read this over here: https://liveandletsfly.com/flight-at...KT3U-aZQUW2YUA pair of flight attendants at American Airlines has been accused of unjustified retaliation against a passenger after he confronted them for not wearing masks…hours after they put their masks back on. There’s a lot of blame to go around.

AA Flight Attendants Accused Of Nasty Retaliation When Confronted For Not Wearing Masks

Andy Eisenmann noticed two AA flight attendants were not wearing masks during a layover in Dallas. He watched them for 40 minutes and took their picture.

Turns out they operated his flight to Palm Springs. Eisenmann claims to be an elite member of American’s AAdvatange program (which strikes me as logical if he flew from Honolulu to Palm Springs via Dallas, which requires quite a bit of backtracking, but provides lie-flat seating in first class).

Toward the end of the flight, after the captain made a second announcement about obligatory face coverings, Eisenmann decided to “confront” one of the flight attendant over what he observed earlier.

The flight attendant immediately became defensive, claimed he was drinking coffee, then retreated to the back of the aircraft.

Upon landing in Palm Springs, police met the aircraft. The flight attendant had called ahead and claimed Eisenmann had been “unruly” onboard.

Eisenmann was placed in a small room without windows or vents, interviewed, then permitted to go home.

An American Airlines spokesperson noted:
We are looking into an issue that occurred on American Airlines flight 2835 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) on Nov. 22. We’ve reached out to the customer to learn more about their recent travel experience and to address their concerns.

American requires all team members and customers to adhere to the face covering policy throughout the entirety of their journey – including all areas of the airport and on board aircraft. Our team is reviewing this incident internally and will conduct any appropriate follow-up.

Personally, I think they're all idiots. FAs should never have been confronted by the pax onboard the aircraft for something that took place in the gatehouse. If the photographing party really wanted to shame them, he should have just Tweeted it to AA with some kind of witty hashtag which is what most people seem to do these days. On the other hand, FAs definitely did not need to involve police and would have been better off quietly apologizing to this customer and making the situation go away. Now their photo is going to be plastered all over the internet for everyone and their company to see.

Starting point is that we have a thread started by someone who has posted nothing more than a link to a clickbait blog. Not even a recognized news source. So, all we have is a juicy story.

But, bottom line is that passengers who "confront" air crew do so at their own risk. This was a matter to raise to AA and not to play junior g-man.

The fact that this guy apparently decided to confront the FAs hours after the maskless incident occurred shows very poor judgment on his part.

However, it's also just as concerning that certain airline staff, particularly FAs, think it is OK to intimidate passengers and waste law enforcement resources by calling police for even minor verbal altercations.

It's always a bad idea to confront anyone in-flight (FA, fellow passenger... anyone), so there's plenty of blame to go around here based on what has been reported, but I'm troubled by reading yet another story about FAs calling police when it seems the situation likely could have been de-fused using less extreme tactics.

Given that the passenger only decided to confront the FAs "towards the end of the flight" his judgement was perhaps 'impaired' after several hours indulging in the in-flight service and the manner and tone of said 'confrontation' may have warranted the response it received.

I agree -- don't confront them while still on board! Instead, tweet the video to AA or otherwise notify AA of this...

I've seen enough in the less-than-friendly skies to know you never confront an FA aboard an aircraft about anything, from their personal behavior before or during the flight to the temperature of the coffee. No good can come of this. You put your head down and get through the flight and the FAs, then take it up with management the next day if you really still feel strongly about it.

Pax involved should know people are in a hair-trigger state over mask protocols right now and not inclined to rationality.

Should one assume that the captain was contacted during the flight and was aware of the unruly claim.

Else it's a he said she said words. Otherwise why was "he was placed in a small room" and only then permitted to leave?

I suspect that he was offered a chance to explain in private at the gate trying to escalate his original on-board complaint.

nothing to see here as judge and jury

It seems like the passenger had shared the photo of the two cabin crew and then deleted it.
The link in the first post has a quote to the deleted tweet by the passenger.