On the heels of the ridiculous "inappropriate dress" claim by Southwest comes this bit of airline employee overreaction and gross abuse of authority that resulted in four grown men being escorted off a flight. For making fun of each other.
This
past weekend I was invited for a writer's weekend of "golf and gaming" on Mississippi's Gulf coast. Never one to pass up either golf or gaming - especially when someone else is footing the bill - I boarded an AirTran flight headed from Ft. Lauderdale to Biloxi late Friday afternoon.
On the plane was a group of seven guys traveling to Biloxi to blow off some steam and lose a bunch of money at the tables. Working on the plane was a flight attendant I'll call "Vincent" (because that's what it said on his name tag), who was miserable to everyone from the second we boarded the plane. He had a scowl on his face and a chip on his shoulder. Just the person you want to be trapped in a flying tube with, 34,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.
The group of seven were joking and busting each others balls from the time they were at the gate. Nothing crazy. Comments on lack of gambling skills. Choice of clothing. Tightness with a buck. Normal guy stuff. And none of it directed at anyone but each other.
Once on the plane, a few of the guys were seated a couple of rows back from the others. So their joking became a little more public. And some of the surrounding passengers started to laugh. But apparently laughing isn't allowed on Vincent's plane. He told these guys they needed to "calm down" and stop disrupting the flight. Now, I'm no expert, but telling your buddy two rows in front of you that he can go ahead and turn the air nozzle all the way up because it's free, is not disrupting a flight. Running up and down the aisles is disruptive. Singing the Macarena at the top of your lungs the whole flight is disruptive. Throwing your bag of peanuts at the flight crew? Disruptive. But none of that happened on this flight.
It's important to mention that these guys were not kids. They ranged in age from mid-thirties to mid-fifties. And they were not drunk. (And believe me, I can tell a drunk when I see him.) These were simply hardworking guys who were juiced to be headed to a casino for the weekend.
Vincent refused to serve them anything to drink during the flight. (And I don't mean cocktails. They were asking for water and soft drinks.) He also skipped over two guys sitting in front of them, who were laughing, so Vincent assumed they were part of the group. They were not. When of couple of them approached him in the aisle to ask for a drink they were told they weren't to "come up behind him during flight" and he would alert the pilot if they continued. They ended up getting drinks from another flight attendant.
When we landed the pilot came over the loudspeaker and told us we needed to remain in our seats and keep the aisles clear. The reason? The four "disruptive" passengers were being escorted off. And were then met at the gate by local police.
Listen, having some guys arrested from busting each others balls during the 10 minutes or so of boarding, when no other passengers complained, is treading into abuse of authority territory. I have been on flights with disruptive passengers. And this wasn't one of them. Rather than applaud their removal, other passengers were stunned. No one thought what they did warranted this treatment. And if you can be arrested for busting balls, then I'm going away for life.