DeepUnderground

I had almost this exact thing happen to me once on QR. I just put my headphones on and ignored the guy shaking my seat. He gave up after about 10 minutes when he realized he wasn't going to get his way.

HIDDY

I struggled to get to the end of the story...it was all a bit me me me.

Good point about mental health issues, which he obviously had. Which could easily have been caused through missing out on some medication. Truth is we don't really know the full story.

Ldnn1

I wonder if the guy was drunk. She doesn't mention it, but the extreme belligerence seems to be of the level that inherently unpleasant people step up to when they are drunk.

Kungpo

Sounds like that to me too.

Ancient Observer

There are some people in this world that should not be allowed to breed.

This sort of thing happened to me once, in WT+, a bully in the seat behind. I called for the crew who resolved it quickly. As I am over 6 feet tall, I thought of intimidating the person, but that would lower me to his status, and possibly have me arrested!

KMPete

It might just be that this sounds like hyperbole because most of us don't encounter nutters like this and can't imagine people behaving so out of hand. I think she let it go on longer than I would have without getting the flight crew involved though and that just made it worse for her, obviously. But I am more troubled by her husband or someone else around not calling the flight crew when this was all unfolding. And what about the woman sitting next to the crazy guy, did she just do nothing? It's amazing that you would see this happening and not do something.

I agree with the thoughts about him possibly being mentally unstable or just plain old drunk. But whatever the root cause of his issues, he sounds like a real piece of work that probably should have had a bit more of a reprimand than getting his own way. I pity the person that sits in front of him on his next flight.

krispy84

I hope that's just hyperbole (seems to be the word of the thread).

We should all try and have at least an iota of human kindness even for obnoxious prats like this guy.

(climbs off high horse........)

GadgetGal

Rubbish. It is not suppression, it is simply a warning. I even remmber them from last millennium


A statement at the start of a piece of writing, video, etc. alerting the reader or viewer to the fact that it contains potentially distressing material.

1010101

Sounds like a nasty piece of work and BA should give him a warning that if he ever does it again, no more flying with them.

That said, it all sounds like a bit of a mountain out of a molehill. Just ignore him and he'll soon shut up, and if he doesn't well that's the job of the crew to step in. It sounds like she just went straight from 0-100.

hugolover

I find it very odd her husband wasn't able to deal with the situation for her.

I read the blog and I see comments from the luvvie lefties saying "the issue isn't where her husband was" ja ja. Sure.

Its a man vs a woman. She's having a panic attack and her husband does nothing. 1-800-DIVORCIO would be appropriate.

YacozA

100% this.
Blogger, with trigger warning and before and after selfie's. The guy behind is a scumbag, but I'd like to hear the crew's version of events.

msm2000uk

I had something similar on a flight back from NCE a year or so ago. I reclined, and the chap behind me kept edging my seat before he then decided to shake it.

I stood up, went to the galley, and advised the crew that I wanted something done about it.

They said they would come by after the meal service, at which point I asked them if they would prefer for me to deal with the situation outright.

As someone who is 6ft and an ex-professional rugby player, the crew decided they might want to get there first. While I had no intention of hitting the chap, I wanted the issue addressed and it seemed ridiculous that the crew were unwilling to do anything at that moment.

The crew spoke to the chap after our conversation, but matters continued. I stood up again, went to the Galley, and advised that I would be calling the Police the second we touched down at LHR - which would thus delay the entire flight and crew. While this was an antisocial thing to do, it appeared that the crew were unwilling to do anything further, and I felt rather powerless to do anything other than that.

Evidently my threat of Police action was enough to force the Crew to talk to the Captain - who advised that he had radio'd ahead for the Police to come to the door upon landing.

I went back to my Seat, smiled at the chap, and sat down again. A few seconds later, the Captain advised that the Police would be meeting the aircraft upon landing, and that all passengers should remain seated until advised to disembark.

The rest of the flight was perfectly normal, and I reclined without being touched.

The police boarded the aircraft, handcuffed the person behind me, and I gave a statement - as did the crew.

While I do not know specifically what happened to the chap, CS did write to me to apologise for the trouble and stated the 'gentleman has now been banned from flying with British Airways'.

While I live in hope, I think the crew should be better trained to deal with such matters - especially as they do seem to happen more and more often.

I am a big guy, and I can both take care of myself, and intimidate if necessary, but I am a naturally calm and easygoing person.

To be frank though, why should any passenger have to feel unsafe?

I do not believe in engaging directly onboard. The crew are there for the safety of all passengers, and they should have taken care of the situation the OP found herself in.

I hope she is given the recognition by BA CS, that her experience deserves.

Apologies for the rant, but I despise unruly passengers.

M

*we landed 15mins early, so the Police coming on-board didn't delay any of the other passengers (fortunately).

BlueThroughCrimp

Yep, all of that. ^

smit0847

I agree this was a horrible situation, but I’m not sure what the benefit of a lengthy, emotional blog post complete with pictures to relive every moment of the awful experience achieves. The panic attack selfies pushed this squarely into the ‘silly’ category for me. The flight is over and you have no details of the offender so what is going to happen now? The crew sounds like they did exactly what they should have done, save for perhaps arresting the man. Did the blogger know what happened on landing or did they exit the plane from a different cabin without seeing them again? The endless references to what class they were in was also pointless – was there some suggestion this was appropriate in WTP but not WT? The ridiculous comparisons between the comfort of economy normally vs CW ‘during a panic attack’ increased the silliness.

Pax are not expected to resolve arguments like this themselves – that’s what the crew is for. Either call the crew (or go and get them) and have them sort it out – which is what they did. They couldn’t reason with the passenger so they moved (upgraded) the blogger. What more were they expected to do? Restrain the offender in a straight jacket? Downgrade him to the horror of WT?

Whats the message? What are we supposed to learn from this and do if we are in this situation?

TravellerFrequently

Based on the lady's report of the circumstances, I would be interested to know how you have handled the incident please?

Do you think the police should have been called because of his behaviour towards the passenger and disregarding the cabin crew?