Ok, this is funny! Drunk pax fights a pilot in the terminal.

I think it brings up some good discussion points.

My question is that whenever I'd had a passenger problem, call security to have the person removed and "de pressurize" the situation. Once the decision to make that call has been made, and trust me, I've made them, that's my last communication with an abusive passenger.

I've been called "all kinna" (sic) names, threats made, etc but once that decision has been made, I'd had my last contact with that person. No negotiating, no reasoning, no responding, absolutely nada. But you drop that first "f' bomb or use a scintilla of abusive language, party over.

In my opinion, just like moderating this damned forum, once you lose your cookies, we're done. Sure I'll occasionally get in the mud and "wrestle the pig" online but at work, nope. There's nothing in a disgruntled passengers rampage that's worth muddying myself for.
 
Bernoulli Fan said:
Seemed like a while for security to get there, and then they didn't even know where they were taking the guy.
Click to expand...

They were kind of "Keystone Coppy" during the arrest.

We had a passenger removed in Frankfurt once and HOLY COW, don't throw a tantrum at the airport in Germany. The cops are there with cat-like quickness and once they arrive, they seemingly take great joy in hog-tying your ass and humiliatingly dragging you out of the gate area.

I think between the call and the passenger being dragged off was less than two minutes.

My only thoughts were "Impressive! I want to see that again! Someone, COME AT ME, BRO!!!"
 
Derg said:
I think it brings up some good discussion points.

My question is that whenever I'd had a passenger problem, call security to have the person removed and "de pressurize" the situation. Once the decision to make that call has been made, and trust me, I've made them, that's my last communication with an abusive passenger.

I've been called "all kinna" (sic) names, threats made, etc but once that decision has been made, I'd had my last contact with that person. No negotiating, no reasoning, no responding, absolutely nada. But you drop that first "f' bomb or use a scintilla of abusive language, party over.

In my opinion, just like moderating this damned forum, once you lose your cookies, we're done. Sure I'll occasionally get in the mud and "wrestle the pig" online but at work, nope. There's nothing in a disgruntled passengers rampage that's worth muddying myself for.
Click to expand...

Agreed. All the more reason to adopt my zen like state of not giving a crap. While its hard to really understand the context of the whole situation, there isn't a damn thing that you could have said to calm that passenger down. Absolutely nothing. You could have said "ok, you can come on the flight" and it still would have resulted in profanity and insults.

On one hand, I think the pilot will have a good carpet dance for basically egging the passenger on. But kudos to him for not hitting the passenger back. I was at a restaurant in Japan with a prison theme. About once an hour they have guys in scary costumes come around to try to scare you...almost knocked that dude out. Its hard to hold that back.
 
Something I learned from my Skyway days when a passenger grabbed my tie, pulled and threw his ticket at me.

First: Wear a clip-on tie. One of my college friend's father has a best friend who had been hijacked TWICE in the 1970's and they always grab for the tie because when they can so easily constrict your breathing, you basically have control of that person. That clip-on will pop off without much effort and you have the opportunity to protect yourself. I would always laugh at the clip-on crowd, but for me, it's personal security.

Second: Always always ALWAYS be outside of arms reach of a passenger or anyone else you don't know at the airport unless absolutely necessary. If I have to deal with an unruly passenger, I'm behind the counter using it as a barrier. I'm not going to walk to the other side of the counter or the desk, or even a zip-line stanchion as it psychologically brings the passenger up to your level of authority.

Third: Never be within spitting range. People are nasty. And unpredictable. I presume that if I ever got spit on, I'd need at least three showers before I feel I got it off my face. Ick.
 
I'm just wondering why the pilot was even at the gate if the flight is so delayed.

I'm nowhere near the gate until the airplane is parked and the passengers start coming off.

If it's a flight I'm already working and we've got some maintenance/ATC delay or something, sure, I'll walk up the jetway and see how things are going at the gate (and sometimes it helps the gate agent for a pilot to make a P.A. to everyone up there), but if some other crew is bringing it in, I'm at least across the terminal a gate or two away, or further still such as the crew room or some quiet area.

If I don't see pax streaming out of the jetway, it's not time to be there yet!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top