Would this be the same UnitedPR that crapped themselves when a YouTube music video about them breaking a Taylor guitar went viral?

I firmly believe 10 to 15 percent of cabin staff are sociopathic and / or mentally ill. This passenger found one of them.

This story bears out my theory that one should avoid all eye or verbal contact with flight attendants until one has observed their behavior for awhile to determine whether or not they're wound properly. I am not kidding. A couple of years ago I had an FA attempt to pull me off a flight for saying good morning -- and indicating, in a friendly way, that I'd seen her and her crewmates in the hotel lounge last evening.

That's the last time I say good morning to any FA without confirming they are not insane.

Unquestionably plausible. Yes.

And that in itself reveals what a pathetic state of affairs it is.

Has this been reported anywhere other than the blogosphere?

Every blog entry that I read about this incident seems to be attributed to the removed passenger's website, joesugarman.com.

I can't help but wonder if it is an internet marketing ploy.

I ran across it on Fark, which linked to The Consumerist.

To repeat myself, what's significant to me is that the story is plausible, or do I mean truthy.

When I saw the blog post's title, "What is America coming to?", I figured this was the pretext for a rant against one or more of the political parties. Didn't see one but like others have said, I'm surprised that someone who flies so much has never run into an incompetent airline employee or a screwed up airline process and then, when it happens, assumes that the country is falling apart.

When the blame is placed on "security" or "an abundance of caution" or some similar drivel and the employee(s) in question aren't terminated on the spot (and physically deplaned instead of the passenger), then yes the country is falling apart.

If Mr. Sugarman, the blogger in question, is accurate in describing what occurred, I'm surprised the flight attendant didn't lock herself in the cockpit for security reasons rather than run the risk of being taken hostage by this. I also wonder what her activities consisted of the night before the flight if she truly mistook "are meals being served" for "are there police on the plane?"

Pathetic and sadly plausible.

No, I believe that a FA who was either ultra paranoid about security or on a power trip decided she wanted him removed, and exaggerated he situation to the captain. Rather than investigating the situation himself, the captain, probably also ultra security paranoid, took the FA's word and decided to remove the passenger "out of an abundance of caution" (hate that phrase). The GA had nothing to do with it. It doesn't sound like the police did anything other than inspect the passenger's ID and probably run a warrant check. While I disagree with that action--cop had no legitimate grounds to demand papers from this passenger--the police had nothing to do with the passenger being evicted, and it doesn't sound like the police detained him for more than a few minutes.

The inevitable problem in these situations is that at each escalation level, the person being escalated to (e.g., captian) doesn't stop to think if any of this makes sense. Instead, he takes at face value what the person says, embellishes it a bit in his own mind, and then escalates his own escalated version to the next level. All it would take is stopping to think and asking a few questions, but that goes against the culture of paranoia and "abundance of caution" that has been fostered.

That is how we get passengers thrown off planes for asking about meals, flights diverted because BOB is written on a barf bag, people's personal private property such as laptops detonated by bomb squads, custom-battery packs confiscated by TSA, special-ed teachers with leather bookmarks arrested and threatened with $10K fines.

One of the few ways to stop this BS is to start holding accountable the people who make these ridiculous escalations instead of rewarding them for their paranoia with commendations and awards. The operating rule should be "reasonable caution" not "abundance of caution," and when escalation beyond reasonable caution is evidenced, there should be consequences.

If you honestly believe this sort of thing doesn't happen almost exactly as described by the blogger, you either have not flown much in the last 9 years, have not read the many many stories about similar incidents, and/or have an irrational bias in favor of airline employees that prevents you from accepting the level of paranoia and/or power-tripping that is present among some front-line airline employees.

I have to agree with BearX220, I've seen FA's fly off the handle for some of the most innocuous things. It really isn't a stretch of the imagination to see this happening. In addition, there is no "cahoots" that needs to happen. The FA heard something she thought was suspicious and brought it to the attention of the Captain who decided to remove the passenger. Once that decision was made, there isn't anything the police officers or the gate agent can do about it. Besides, they put him on a flight two hours later.

Maybe it's just me but "be a meal served" and "police officer" doesn't seem like that big of a stretch. Police officer can easily sound like 4 syllables if spoken fast or with an accent. Add in the loud noise from a CRJ/7 with the door open...

The Consumerist takes its whole story from the Joe Sugarman blog. Nothing to see here. Move on.

Could be.

Still, consider that just because something doesn't hit, say, the New York Times doesn't mean it didn't happen. @:-)

Then google "Joe Sugarman" and ask yourself why somebody with a profitable career would risk his livelihood by telling some crazy and untrue story. @:-)

He's 71, right?

Did The Austin American-Statesman cover it? Did the story appear on any of the local TV news programs? Radio stations?

This is my assessment, also. The FA probably has a hearing problem and misunderstood but rather than admit it she acted on what she thought she heard. People with hearing problems very often are unwilling to admit it and react with hostility towards those whose speech they don't understand, blaming them for deliberately slurring their speech.

(This is also assuming it's a real incident at all.)