Sykes

FlyerTalkers: Power-tripping flight attendants at United are a scourge and must be stopped.

Also FlyerTalkers: Flight attendants should act like police and intervene in disputes between passengers.

kapooncha

So hypothetical question. Flight breaks out at 30,000 feet between 4 passengers. Who should intervene to break that up?

jhayes_1780

As long as you want to keep going with hypothetical questions:

A fight breaks out at 4 feet with 30,000 passengers, who should intervene?

Sykes

30,000 ft. is a much different story than 0 feet. Having said that, in almost every situation I know of where there was a dispute or an aggressive passenger, it has been other passengers that have diffused the situation rather than the crew.

I'm mostly with the FAs on this one. While I think that they could have called to the GA to request police (and if they were untruthful about the situation when queried it's unforgivable), I also think that if they engaged in the situation in any visible way it was likely to escalate it further rather than defuse it, so the right answer is to get the passengers off the plane as quickly as possible and let those qualified to handle it deal with it.

kapooncha

So you think passengers should police other passengers and FA's can be left off to the side to just shrug their shoulders? WOW, I'm just amazed.

I can tell you as someone who sits at the front most of the time, I will not be intervening unless I think there is a terrorist attack or if a child is getting beaten. Outside of those 2 events, I'm going to the lavatory, locking myself in, and waiting for the disturbance to be dealt with.

StuckinITH

I have an answer: At 30,000 feet or a little below, passenger touches the private parts of his female neighbors. The FAMs intervened. Plane returned to its departure airport.

Sykes

Pretty much. In civil society this is generally the way it works--adults act like adults and take care of themselves, and if things escalate too far bystanders intervene and, if necessary, call the police.

I don't expect ushers in a theater to intervene in a dispute between patrons, aside from asking them to leave or calling the police if necessary. I have the same expectation of flight attendants when the plane is on the ground and parked at the gate. At 30,000 ft. I expect flight attendants to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continued safety of the flight, but the form that takes will differ a lot depending on the situation.

LTBoston

I 100% agree that the resources within the airport were the appropriate individuals to handle the altercation. What I'm arguing is that the FA should have given the GA a heads up that the situation was coming their way so they *could* be prepared to handle it instead of just standing there doing nothing.

corbetti

This is why everyone in our family (including our young kids) have studied martial arts. Too many rude people who think they can bully others. After years of training, i'm more than happy to meet any clown at the end of the jetway. As long as they throw the first punch, i'm in my full legal right to {response}, which i will do.

fastair

FlyerTalker70

Agree 100% here, especially in confined spaces like an airplane where the security may even get confused and pull the wrong pax off the flight! The last thing UA needs is another David Dao situation where passengers get forcibly removed from the plane and the video going viral on Youtube shortly thereafter.
The one thing UA could have done differently would have reported the pax and incident to the TSA (they have a pax manifest so should be easy to look up). I don't know if TSA has that "technology" but would argue that they should. Their job is to find the security needles in the haystack. Wouldn't mind that disruptive pax getting frisked a few extra times since he's clearly a safety risk. Maybe then they will learn their lesson!

One final thought, and I don't want to be an apologist for this guy. However, one thing we aren't aware of the aggressive pax's context. Perhaps they had a nasty misconnection or something else go on in their life that triggered them. Still, that's no excuse for the behaviour but something to keep in mind.

Safe Travels,

James

narvik

If it doesn't excuse the behavior, why even bother to keep it in mind?

alangore

Row 1 - so this all took place in F?

FlyerTalker70

Didn't realize that at the time. Brings new meaning to the term DYKWIA!

-James

Baze

Why does the row matter. Row 1 or Row 30, it is still assault and the OP should have asked for charges to be pressed against the offender.