BeatCal

It is interesting that the Facebook reply of US Air is no longer listed. Sounds like back pedaling

And from the twitter page of the passenger is one of the best statements I have seen. It is too bad that a FA and former pilot on here don't agree to this:

ExSkyGoddess Dk Raven • an hour ago −
I would say the problem is with the flight attendant. As a former FA at Continental (now United), I worked with mostly great people but too often I had the displeasure of flying with some real losers -- ones that treated customers horribly and wouldn't lift a finger to help them. This FA sounds exactly like that kind of crew member -- the kind who should be tossed out on his/her ... but because of inevitable union intervention, can never be fired and will continue to harass and demean the people they are supposed to be serving.
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BoeingBoy

PDT is a small carrier but generally dispatch (officially OCC since someone mentioned SOCC) has the "big picture" whereas the crew only knows about their airplane/flight. So it would be up to dispatch to decide whether to cancel this specific flight or use another plane/crew and cancel that flight if fewer people would be inconvenienced. I would think that PHL had more than 1 Dash-8 on the ground at the time the incident happened.

The last several posts talked about other passenger's comments. Passengers generally only know what the PA says if they pay that much attention. 35 people on a Dash is basically a full flight. How many passengers would know if asked that the dog couldn't lay in the aisle? How many passengers have even heard of the ADAA? Or know the approved policies implementing it? For all but maybe 1 or 2, all they know was that a blind man wasn't allowed have his seeing eye don lying on the floor in front of his legs and for that they (and some posters here) cast blame on the crew.

Jim

bkafrick

Um. What?!

No where, in any statement, any documentation, even any speculation, does it say that the captain threw the FA off the plane.

Now you're just making things up.

grinch26

I am waiting to hear what compensation the passengers received from US Airways...

burlax

We REALLY need a video recording - if anyone made it - to know what happened onboard.

US 'spokespeople' will most likely lie as lying is basically a spokesperson's job. And they are not in a position to tell what happened anyway, as they were not there.

And passengers will very likely lie because few people are capable to observe attentively and impartially and to relay information accurately.

tommyleo

^ ^ ^

BeatCal

In response to Boeing stating a Captain cannot cancel a flight. There are many ways he can

mdpdjx

The flight attendent sounded like a big bully. It's great that the passengers stood up to her as a group.

adkrick

I think the FA and USAirways have handled this poorly. That being said......

Suppose the FA allowed the dog to be in the aisle, against regulations.
Suppose then that the flight had a problem, and that the dog somehow impeded egress or maybe caused an injury.

How fast do you think these same passengers who "rose in solidarity" would throw the FA and USAirways under the bus for not enforcing their own regulations?

toomanybooks

It is said that a golden retriever can fit under airplane seats. I don't fly US, but with the new Evolve seating on WN, I can barely get my feet in there. Certain underseats even have a bar across them. Would like to see a fullsize dog get in there and then back out, especially in an emergency.

BrlDsguise

If they were in flight it would be a different story, but according to the story the plane was sitting on the Tarmac when this happened and it is difficult for me to envision a situation that a dog at the very rear of the plane causes an injury or impedes egress by simply turning itself around or laying behind the mans legs while the flight is sitting there.

Were passengers allowed to use the lavatory or get something out of their carry ons while the flight was delayed? There has to be times common sense prevails and a rule can be bent to insure the comfort of the passengers and service animals.

bkafrick

No. They cannot. Safety rules cannot be bent. Otherwise, why bother having them?

Flyer78

Exactly, bkafrick.

It's the same reason they MUST show you how to use a seat-belt, even though, as our friends at VX point out, 99.999% of people know how it works. Or to emphasize, more than 20 years later, that all flights are non-smoking. Including the Lavs. Oh, and there is a smoke detector in the Lav. And yeah, it's a federal offense to tamper with it.

Common sense would indicate they could probably "get away" with not sharing that. And all it takes is one passenger complaint to say "the safety briefing was not complete" or, often in WN's case "too humorous" and the media runs with it.

BoeingBoy

Certainly a Captain can establish conditions that result in a flight being canceled, but generally at outstations and not a hub. Anything that makes a plane un-airworthy when that's the only USX plane there can end up with a cancellation. But as I said, in PHL I can't image there not being another Dash 8 there or inbound that could be substituted and another flight cancelled. That is the "big picture" that dispatch has that the Capt of a particular flight doesn't have and why dispatch and not the captain actually cancels flights.

Jim

BoeingBoy

Sitting at the gate it's not that big a problem - the dog was in the aisle when boarding, but the dog couldn't be in the aisle for takeoff. So if too big to fit beneath the seat or whoever is in those seats has a bag to put in that space, something has to be done to correct the problem.

Without having been there and not knowing exactly what occured, it seems that one possiblility (only possiblility!) would be to request a volunteer to take the next flight, freeing up a seat with underseat space - if the dog would fit there. A Dash 8 isn't the roomiest of aircraft to start with. Then see if all the passengers were as sympathetic and offering to give up their seat...

Jim