Originally Posted by COSPILOT

Originally Posted by Collierkr

Originally Posted by PTahCha

Ultimately, the FA's responsibility is safety during the flight. After landing, the FA simply becomes any other innocent bystander since, after all, the flight has landed. I don't find any fault with the FA not wanting to get into the situation, just like any other passenger could have intervened.

Originally Posted by immaculate

On a recent flight, I was seated in row 1 in the aisle seat. Pax in question was across the aisle from me in the aisle seat as well. There was some commotion during boarding when he berated another passenger for squashing his bag in the overhead bin, but I had my earphones in and didn't think much of it.

Upon landing, I was standing in the aisle waiting for a chance to get my bag when the other pax put both hands around my shoulders and forcefully moved me out of his way so that he could reach his bag in the bin that I was standing in front of. I'm not accustomed to being touched/handled by strangers, and am not a fan. I asked him politely to not put his hands on me again. At this, the pax became irate and started calling me all sorts of colorful names. During his tirade, he made a show of grabbing his bag from the bin and yanking it out. In the process, either by accident or on purpose, he struck my head with his elbow hard enough that I winced and briefly saw stars. At this point, I asked the FAs for help. The FAs in the galley (who, I will add, were just standing there watching and not doing their landing procedures, etc) looked at me, then at each other, and said that there was nothing they could do.

The pax heard me asking the FAs for help and then told me he would be waiting for me after we got off the plane. I don't remember his exact words, but it was meant to be a threat. Again, I looked to the FAs, who just shrugged. Everyone was waiting to deplane at this point, so I proceeded to the ramp thinking that this was just a male ego situation. Got to the boarding area and saw the aggressive pax standing nearby waiting, just as he said he would be. I immediately told the gate agent what was happening and asked for the police. The gate agent called airport police as well as a UA supervisor. At the sight of this, the aggressive pax jogged away. I waited ~5 min and no one showed, so I picked up a white courtesy telephone and called airport police again.

A UA supervisor was the first to arrive on scene. She asked me what happened in a calm and indifferent tone. As I told my story, she repeatedly interrupted me and defended the FAs actions. An example of this was, "they have landing procedures they need to focus on when taxiing to the gate - they can't keep an eye on everything going on during that process" and, "it's not their responsibility to get involved in these situations." I protested that having listened to, "your safety is our #1 priority" a bazillion times, this seemed contradictory and I had never felt more unsafe on a plane. She shrugged and continued to explain away the behavior. I told her I would be filing a complaint to United, and she got defensive and started asking me for my name, seat number, etc (yea, she completely neglected to do this when we first started the interaction). I later saw her discussing the issue with one of the FAs who was deplaning and repeatedly heard the FA say, "I didn't see or hear anything" - an outright cover-your-rear lie.

Police arrived on scene and took my statement. I had a tight connection and was a bit less shaken by this point, so declined to press charges. All the same, the police tracked down the offending pax at another gate and apparently gave him a stern talking to. The police officers expressed shock and disappointment over how the flight crew handled the situation both to me and to the gate agent. The UA supervisor was nowhere to be found at this point.

At this point in my life, I have zero qualms/ego issues with walking away from a confrontation, except that on a plane, there is literally no place for me to go. I have never felt so threatened and unsafe on a flight, and I am still stunned by how UA handled this. I wrote to 1K Voice, and my email was ignored for 5 days. So, I wrote to the executive office detailing my experience. After a few days, I received a response to the effect of, "we investigated and talked to all staff involved, and no one saw or heard or could corroborate the situation you described. you declined to press charges with the police, and we have no eyewitness accounts of what you say happened. sorry for your disappointment."

What would you do in this situation?

Originally Posted by Imstevek

Of course there is, but not in this case. Nothing further happened on the plane post-shrug, unless I'm missing something.

I'm not advocating what they did was proactive, but as I stated, the resources within the airport are much better equipped to handle some guy going off than the flight crew.

Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer

I'm with the FA on this one - if I was a FA and saw 2 passengers were about to duke it out, I'd clear myself out as fast as possible and get out of the way - I would not look at this as part of my job responsibilities to break up a fight.

Originally Posted by Imstevek

Actually they did move it off the plane. They didn't follow through on the other reasonable actions you mentioned, but they got it off the plane. Which is the best outcome, frankly. The flight crew is least equipped to manage the situation if the plane is at a gate and ready to offload. There are many more resources to manage at the airport.

What airport did this happen at?

Originally Posted by Miles Ahead

At the risk of being labeled an apologist, I think the FA did one thing exactly right - got the confrontation off the airplane. I think the outcome would have been worse had it escalated inside the airplane. Note that after they were asked for help, no further contact was made, and once in the gate area the police could be (and were) called.

Originally Posted by jhayes_1780

I can't shake the dirty end of the stick at the FA's. Its been said over and over that the FA's should call the police. How is that supposed to happen (and I'm not talking about them whooping out a cell phone and calling 911)?

Can You imagine the 911 dialogue:

911: What is your emergency?
FA: A passenger just complained about getting hit by another passenger, nothing is happening now except for some shouting.
911: OK what is your location?
FA: I'm at door 1A
911: Where?
FA: At the airport
911: OK your at gate 1A?
FA: No door 1A, We don't know what gate we are yet.


We were talking about a matter of a few minutes (as the plane was stopped at the gate, waiting for the bridge, right?)

Originally Posted by kapooncha

So you won't shake your "dirty stick" at the FA for lying about the incident afterward either?

Originally Posted by COSPILOT

Why do you assume the OP is 100% correct and the FA is lying? My wife is in criminal law and doesn't assume anything, ever. She investigates. OP failed to file a police report, there is apparently zero witnesses, claims he saw stars, but was focused on the connecting flight. So your assumption that the FA is lying is absurd without proof.

Originally Posted by kapooncha

So you won't shake your "dirty stick" at the FA for lying about the incident afterward either?

Originally Posted by jhayes_1780

Only referencing the echo's of "why didn't the FA's call the police/the FA's should have called the police"

Originally Posted by kapooncha

This isn't a court of law, it's a message board. As such, there is no burden of proof that the OP must present.

OP and attacker were seated in Row 1, right in front of the FA's. You want me to believe that none of the FA's saw the initial assault, the 2nd assault, or heard the threat? Sorry not buying that. Not now, not in a million years.

Originally Posted by kapooncha

And you'd be terminated pretty quick. There is no difference between a fight breaking out at 30,000 feet or at 0 feet. If the passengers are on the plane, the FA's are responsible. If a fight had broken out, there is a good chance that other passengers could have been hurt. And then the airline would be looking at a multi million dollar lawsuit.

Originally Posted by jhayes_1780

Only referencing the echo's of "why didn't the FA's call the police/the FA's should have called the police"

Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer

I would love to see a source that a FA is responsible at 30,000 feet (or 0 feet) of breaking up a fight other than letting the pilot know. FA's aren't guards - and quite frankly, the typical FA, in my experience certainly cannot physically break up a fistfight on a plane. At best, they know where restraints are located and would certainly need fellow passengers to assist in taking control of a rogue passenger.