Unhinged FA

Had this been a passenger, the flight would never have left the ground or it would have been diverted. But it was allowed to continue.

Also I note that the air marshals seemed to have difficulty controlling the FA. That wouldn't have been the case if passengers had intervened. However, since it was a crew member who was out of control, it would be my presumption that the passengers were afraid to act.

This person was just unstable and intended no harm but was still screened to very minimal standards seeing they were part of the crew. What if they had intended harm?

What level of physical screening do flight crew get? I was under the impression that they got screened equivalent to PreCheck standards, i.e. WTDM and carry-on x-ray scan.

There's also a discussion over in the AA Forum here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...al-flight.html

LiAAbility. She obviously had some sort of mental decompensation, which is sad. But if American had multiple warnings, they should have let her fly.

Lives could have been endangered in the event of an emergency.

The APFA and American also have some damage control. I know it's the "one isolated incident" phenomenon, but this is unsettling. If the person "primarily here for your safety" is this unstable, the reputation of the flight attendants is compromised.

I do think that crews go through regular metal detector/x-ray screening in Frankfurt, but that wouldn't have stopped anything. It's not Fraport's job to ask Ms. Snowe if she went off her meds.

I think the biggest issue is for American's leadership: if multiple crewmembers recognize and warn against a dangerous flight attendant, there has to be some means to believe them and prevent an inflight disruption. That could mean a delay or cancellation, but this shows that they might not be listening to their own staff.

Their screening may now be equivalent to Pre Check, not sure anymore. They certainly are not screened like regular passengers. It is said that a pilot can always crash the plane, and I agree with that to a degree, but cabin crew have no such ability and their only means of attack would be to use some item already on the airplane or something they brought with them to the airplane.

Crew should be screened at no less of a standard that Pre Check including ETD swabs if that is being used.

I've seen at several airports (BOS and ORD most recently) that crew members enter at the secure area exit door and simply have their Known Crewmember badges checked. No physical screening whatsoever.

Seems almost NONE, though they will claim "our backgrounds have been checked", well so have KTN holders....so what is your point?

Crew members are permitted to use what is called "Known Crew Member", this bypasses all screening, unless as described a person is randomly selected for other screening.

according to the website "Crewmembers can utilize the KCM access points for both business and personal use."

Known Crew Member has random hand swabs. That's the most I've ever seen them do.

But this particular case was in Frankfurt, and I do think that crews go through regular screening there.

Actually it was a round trip with problems from this crew member on both legs.

AA failed to heed the remaining crews input stating that there was a problem.

Seems airlines are quick to remove passengers over little to nothing but not so much if it is an employee.

We had an AA FA get all bent out of shape in Athens about an exchange she'd had with a passenger in coach. Whatever happened, and I never heard or fully understood the whole problem, but she was trying to get the passenger or actually the whole family taken off the flight. It didn't seem to be a security issue and apparently had something to do with the health of a child in the party. She literally was yelling about some health risk and if the captain didn't kick the family off the plane she was going to walk off and take enough FAs with her that the flight would be grounded. Now I don't mind her being concerned about spreading a disease but she was almost hysterical and was having what I'd best describe as an adult trantrun. Turns out there was a pediatrician on the flight and he examined the child and said it was not a health concern. We departed an hour late but the FA was moved up to business and basically fumed for the whole 10+ hours to Philly.

Seems like only yesterday...

I hope you took a moment when you returned to let the airline know about her poor conduct.

Yes. By name. And I even dropped my credentials into my comments which for me is highly unusual.

Physical contact, conflict with a FAM and other crew members, then reassigned to F (?), people who might argue that one of the perks of the fares they pay for is to not have surly, let alone psycho, crew.

I'm amazed they let her on the flight back. Perhaps AA made the decision that even if they had to throw a token voucher to pax who followed up, it was still cheaper than a possible delay because they had to find a replacement. She must be pretty senior.