"Serious security breach" for knowing a FA's name ?!!?
Sep 9, 2008, 3:01 pm
#1
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"Serious security breach" for knowing a FA's name ?!!?
Ok I was flying in BE ATH-JFK today and was sitting next to a very nice elderly gentleman who was flying with his wife. He was keeping a travel notebook and was constantly writing things down about his trip, I guess to help him remember it all.
So 3/4 of the way into the flight he shows his little spiral notebook to an FA and asks if a certain person is on the flight crew. Apparently his wife had a hospital stay while in Athens and one of the staff at their hotel who helped with the arrangements knew a FA on our flight. This person at the hotel gave the gentleman the FA's name and said to say HI to her during the flight.
Anyway, the guy asks the FA about this person and she seems very nice about it tried to look at her list of staff to see if she was working the flight. Then for some reason another FA comes over and once she hear's the story she gets quite terse and says "This is a very serious breach of security and you should not have this name. This is very serious." She repeats this security statement several times to him.
The second FA then makes the guy rip out the page from his travel notebook, which contained other unrelated notes to the FA's name. She then heads for the front of the plane, but I don't know what she did with the paper.
Personally, I think the second FA who claimed knowing a FA's name was a "serious security breach" was smoking crack or on a power trip. I can't fathom any reason for such a statement.
Power goes to people's heads and this FA was really out of line, IMHO. Thankfully there were no police or other action taken against this 85 year old man.
So 3/4 of the way into the flight he shows his little spiral notebook to an FA and asks if a certain person is on the flight crew. Apparently his wife had a hospital stay while in Athens and one of the staff at their hotel who helped with the arrangements knew a FA on our flight. This person at the hotel gave the gentleman the FA's name and said to say HI to her during the flight.
Anyway, the guy asks the FA about this person and she seems very nice about it tried to look at her list of staff to see if she was working the flight. Then for some reason another FA comes over and once she hear's the story she gets quite terse and says "This is a very serious breach of security and you should not have this name. This is very serious." She repeats this security statement several times to him.
The second FA then makes the guy rip out the page from his travel notebook, which contained other unrelated notes to the FA's name. She then heads for the front of the plane, but I don't know what she did with the paper.
Personally, I think the second FA who claimed knowing a FA's name was a "serious security breach" was smoking crack or on a power trip. I can't fathom any reason for such a statement.
Power goes to people's heads and this FA was really out of line, IMHO. Thankfully there were no police or other action taken against this 85 year old man.
Sep 9, 2008, 3:14 pm
#2
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Honestly, I don't think it had anything to do with simply knowing a FA's real name.......as I've come to know a few over the last few years.
However, I can see where an 'unauthorized person' knowing in advance as to which specific flight that a particular FA is working that day (i.e. their work schedule)........could very likely be considered a breach of security.....especially if this involves an international flight departing from a location outside the US........even moreso for flights departing from ATH.
A.J.
Sep 9, 2008, 4:04 pm
#6
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More proof that some FAs need a big, frosty, mug of Chill Out™.
Sep 9, 2008, 4:08 pm
#7
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... Personally, I think the second FA who claimed knowing a FA's name was a "serious security breach" was smoking crack or on a power trip. I can't fathom any reason for such a statement.
Power goes to people's heads and this FA was really out of line, IMHO. Thankfully there were no police or other action taken against this 85 year old man.
Power goes to people's heads and this FA was really out of line, IMHO. Thankfully there were no police or other action taken against this 85 year old man.
Sep 9, 2008, 4:10 pm
#8
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I would have read the FA's name right off his/her name tag and then ask, would you like me erase my memory now and will Delta pay for the procedure?
Sep 9, 2008, 4:20 pm
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The flight attendant had zero business and zero legal authority to make any such demands. Your personal documents (including notes, photographs and videos) are your private property.
Yes, get her name off her badge & file a complaint with the airline. On a DL Connection flight I once had a SkyWest FA offer a false name on the intercom (bore no resemblance to the name on her badge whatsoever) and then proceed to deliver an extreme version of the primarily-there-for-your-safety-do-not-approach-the-galley-under-any-circumstances lecture (hard to avoid on CRJ-700 when the forward lav basically is in the galley
), definitely not an authorized DL or SkyWest spiel. Hopefully my note to DL/SkyWest was a factor in never seeing her again despite flying that route many more times. 
Yes, get her name off her badge & file a complaint with the airline. On a DL Connection flight I once had a SkyWest FA offer a false name on the intercom (bore no resemblance to the name on her badge whatsoever) and then proceed to deliver an extreme version of the primarily-there-for-your-safety-do-not-approach-the-galley-under-any-circumstances lecture (hard to avoid on CRJ-700 when the forward lav basically is in the galley
), definitely not an authorized DL or SkyWest spiel. Hopefully my note to DL/SkyWest was a factor in never seeing her again despite flying that route many more times.
Last edited by MikeMpls; Sep 9, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Sep 9, 2008, 4:26 pm
#11
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That nice elderly gentleman is owed an apology and compensation for the unauthorized theft of his personal property.
Sep 9, 2008, 5:19 pm
#12
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Absolutely reasonable.
Sheesh!!
Has anyone out there ever flown El-Al?? I'd say they are the safest and most security conscious airline...certainly inspire more confidence than the TSA and most American carriers.
Had this happened on the ground before take-off on an El-Al flight, I have no doubt that the man would have been taken off and questioned and/or the flight would have been canceled.
Only last week there were reports of terrorist cells conducting surveillance on El-Al crews in Toronto (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017894.html). If there are terrorists surveying airline crews in Toronto while planning an attack, then I'd certainly be concerned about surveillance in Athens as well. I can recall a story from a few years back when an El-Al pilot canceled a flight because the limo driver from the hotel to the airport was behaving suspiciously.
Was the FA over-reacting? maybe a little...tearing out the page does seem like a bit much. She could have confiscated the journal until the end of the flight and given it to the TSA. But maybe the old man was working for a terrorist cell that has cracked the airline's servers and is planning to blackmail a FA or wants to send in a disguised impostor to bring down the flight.
Had I been on the flight, this man's presence would have made me VERY uncomfortable. But maybe I am just paranoid after living in Israel for awhile!
Has anyone out there ever flown El-Al?? I'd say they are the safest and most security conscious airline...certainly inspire more confidence than the TSA and most American carriers.
Had this happened on the ground before take-off on an El-Al flight, I have no doubt that the man would have been taken off and questioned and/or the flight would have been canceled.
Only last week there were reports of terrorist cells conducting surveillance on El-Al crews in Toronto (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017894.html). If there are terrorists surveying airline crews in Toronto while planning an attack, then I'd certainly be concerned about surveillance in Athens as well. I can recall a story from a few years back when an El-Al pilot canceled a flight because the limo driver from the hotel to the airport was behaving suspiciously.
Was the FA over-reacting? maybe a little...tearing out the page does seem like a bit much. She could have confiscated the journal until the end of the flight and given it to the TSA. But maybe the old man was working for a terrorist cell that has cracked the airline's servers and is planning to blackmail a FA or wants to send in a disguised impostor to bring down the flight.
Had I been on the flight, this man's presence would have made me VERY uncomfortable. But maybe I am just paranoid after living in Israel for awhile!
Sep 9, 2008, 6:27 pm
#15
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Sheesh!!
Has anyone out there ever flown El-Al?? I'd say they are the safest and most security conscious airline...certainly inspire more confidence than the TSA and most American carriers.
Had this happened on the ground before take-off on an El-Al flight, I have no doubt that the man would have been taken off and questioned and/or the flight would have been canceled.
Only last week there were reports of terrorist cells conducting surveillance on El-Al crews in Toronto (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017894.html). If there are terrorists surveying airline crews in Toronto while planning an attack, then I'd certainly be concerned about surveillance in Athens as well. I can recall a story from a few years back when an El-Al pilot canceled a flight because the limo driver from the hotel to the airport was behaving suspiciously.
Was the FA over-reacting? maybe a little...tearing out the page does seem like a bit much. She could have confiscated the journal until the end of the flight and given it to the TSA. But maybe the old man was working for a terrorist cell that has cracked the airline's servers and is planning to blackmail a FA or wants to send in a disguised impostor to bring down the flight.
Had I been on the flight, this man's presence would have made me VERY uncomfortable. But maybe I am just paranoid after living in Israel for awhile!
Has anyone out there ever flown El-Al?? I'd say they are the safest and most security conscious airline...certainly inspire more confidence than the TSA and most American carriers.
Had this happened on the ground before take-off on an El-Al flight, I have no doubt that the man would have been taken off and questioned and/or the flight would have been canceled.
Only last week there were reports of terrorist cells conducting surveillance on El-Al crews in Toronto (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017894.html). If there are terrorists surveying airline crews in Toronto while planning an attack, then I'd certainly be concerned about surveillance in Athens as well. I can recall a story from a few years back when an El-Al pilot canceled a flight because the limo driver from the hotel to the airport was behaving suspiciously.
Was the FA over-reacting? maybe a little...tearing out the page does seem like a bit much. She could have confiscated the journal until the end of the flight and given it to the TSA. But maybe the old man was working for a terrorist cell that has cracked the airline's servers and is planning to blackmail a FA or wants to send in a disguised impostor to bring down the flight.
Had I been on the flight, this man's presence would have made me VERY uncomfortable. But maybe I am just paranoid after living in Israel for awhile!
. Love how you're so breathlessly certain how El-Al would react to these non-issues.If you're for real, please crawl back under the bed. Your pathetic paranoia is representative of the thought process whch has so many of the sheeple scared senseless by water in quantities > 3.4 fl. ounces. Go find yourself an airline that makes a habit of cancelling flights because of unfounded suspicion. I suspect there'll be lots of room unhindered room onboard for you, for a short time, anyway.