Southwest denies emergency phone call before take off

jgheggie

jgheggie

Well-Known Member
This is an interesting story. I'm sure if the captain had been notified he/she would have allowed the phone call.

http://fox40.com/2015/05/15/woman-c...sband-after-receiving-troubling-text-message/


GERMANTOWN, Wisconsin —

A Wisconsin woman says Southwest Airlines refused to let her call her husband after she received a troubling text message shortly before her flight was scheduled to take off.

Last month, Karen Momsen-Evers was flying back to Milwaukee when she received a text message from her husband, Andy, that read, “Karen, please forgive me for what I am about to do, I am going to kill myself…”

“I started shaking the minute I got the text and I was panicked, I didn’t know what to do,” Momsen-Evers told WTMJ, noting that her husband had been stressed recently.

Momsen-Evers responded “no” to the text message and immediately tried to call her husband, but a flight attendant told her to turn the phone off.

“The steward slapped the phone down and said you need to go on airplane mode now,” she told WTMJ.

Momsen-Evers says she explained the situation but was told it was “FAA regulations” and nothing could be done. Once the flight reached a cruising altitude, she explained the situation to another attendant in hopes of being able to make an emergency phone call during the flight.

“I begged her, I said I’m sure someone can make an emergency phone call,” but she says the woman told her there was nothing she could do.

Momsen-Evers said she sat in her seat and sobbed for the entire flight.

When the plane arrived at the gate, she immediately called police. When she arrived at home, she was met by officers who informed her that her husband had killed himself.

Southwest Airlines issued a statement to WTMJ in response to the incident.

“Our hearts go out to the Evers family during this difficult time. Our flight attendants are trained to notify the Captain if there is an emergency that poses a hazard to the aircraft or to the passengers on-board. In this situation, the pilots were not notified.”

The airline also offered the woman a full refund.

“The pain of knowing something could have been done, it breaks my heart,” she said.
 
I saw that one yesterday. Really bad PR for SWA. I do wonder what could be done differently. One issue is pax always have excuses for why they are doing something, the FA's job is essentially what a substitute teacher deals with. Adults are no better than school kids trying to get away with anything they can.

Bad situation all around, hopefully it will be used in future CRM scenarios.
 
How about charging the FA with involuntary manslaughter? Now that we live in an era where police get murder charges for arresting people, is it that unrealistic? Not to make things political...haha.
I don't really mean that I suppose, I just HATE it when stupid people go on power trips.
 
Why not just make the call? Worst they will do is stop the flight and kick her off. Not like they are going to physically assault her.

And not to play blame the victim, but other article said she was out on a "Girls Weekend" trip..... Really, husband clinically depressed and she decides to go out partying........

"Karen was flying from New Orleans back to Milwaukee after taking a girls trip down south. The text came as flight attendants were doing their final cabin checks."
 
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As much of a bummer as this is, in reality, we can't halt airplanes for everyone who "needs" to make a phone call.

Did she think she was going to solve that problem in a few minutes, then continue on with the flight? She should have exited the aircraft.
 
jskibo said:
Why not just make the call? Worst they will do is stop the flight and kick her off. Not like they are going to physically assault her.

And not to play blame the victim, but other article said she was out on a "Girls Weekend" trip..... Really, husband clinically depressed and she decides to go out partying........
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I can think of several scenarios where this is entirely plausible. The dynamics and nuances are vitally important here and we don't have that information.

Horrible story.
 
KKochan said:
As much of a bummer as this is, in reality, we can't halt airplanes for everyone who "needs" to make a phone call.

Did she think she was going to solve that problem in a few minutes, then continue on with the flight? She should have exited the aircraft.
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She might have called 911, called a friend, called her husband....there are a lot of scenarios....

Think of it like the "swiss cheese" model of airplane accidents. If she had been able to interrupt his process in some way, he might be alive.

He might not be. We can't know.
 
JordanD said:
Seriously. "My husband's gonna kill himself"
"Turn your phone off"
"Ok."
Click to expand...

you have to wonder if there is not more to this story than reported. I would like to think any FA in that position would use some common sense and human decency to at the very least escalate the situation. At the same point, I would like to think that if the FA had really insisted, the wife would have done all in her power to make that call, including being removed from the flight.

Its one thing to leave an ipad in the terminal and flip out and try to have someone contact a gate agent, it is on a completely different level than if your significant other attempting suicide.
 
melltimejr said:
How about charging the FA with involuntary manslaughter? Now that we live in an era where police get murder charges for arresting people, is it that unrealistic? Not to make things political...haha.
I don't really mean that I suppose, I just HATE it when stupid people go on power trips.
Click to expand...
Did you really just equate this to a police officer killing someone and being charged for it? To say this is an apples to oranges comparison is giving your comment infinitely more legitimacy than it deserves. If you want to discuss those matters take it to the lavatory.

This is a horrible turn of events, and quite possibly a phone call if she were allowed to make it wouldn't have helped. But an emergency phone call should be permitted, it's very possible that in a frantic moment there was a total loss of effective communication. I'm almost certain that if the FA was aware of the situation she would have not interfered, then called the crew to inform them.
 
PropSettin' said:
WWYD as captain/FO if you were notified that a pax had received this text message and wants to use the phone?
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"Is this a life threatening/dangerous/emergency situation?"

If the answer is yes, the call is most certainly allowed and the passenger is removed from the flight. If a passenger poses a risk to themselves or others (In this case, a hysterical woman dealing with the potential suicide of a loved one) they do not belong on a flight. This is a very sad and horribly tragic situation. And clearly there is more to this story.
 
Wow... this story is so wild it seems hard to believe.

What an ass for putting his wife in that position. Did he know she was on an airplane, in a helpless position?
 
There's very little that the wife could have done. Did she think she was going to make a quick phone call and then the flight would take off? Did she want the whole flight delayed while she dealt with the situation?

I guarantee we do not have the WHOLE story. Because only one person has been talking and we need to hear the crew's and others' versions of events.


Hypothetically speaking, as a former FA, here's what I would have done:

We're not told exactly when this text was received. Was it during boarding? Taxi-out? Takeoff? Per FCC regulations, cell phones have to be in airplane mode before takeoff, so you shouldn't be receiving texts during takeoff anyway, let alone trying to make a call. Good luck keeping the signal inflight, as you may or may not be able to make the call as the flight goes on.

If this was during boarding: "Ma'am, you're free to head on back up to the gate and take care of any personal business you need to." If she makes it back on the plane before departure, awesome, but we're not going to delay a hundred-plus other people for one person.

If it was during taxi-out: "Okay, tell me what's going on? It's an emergency? Here's what we'll do, what's your full name and address? I'm going to tell the pilots what's going on, they can call ops and get a 911 call started with your info. We might be able to go back to the gate and get you off so you can take care of what's going on." I'd actually be okay with a pax calling 911 directly themselves during taxi, but I'd tell the pilots ASAP whats' going on so they're in the loop and obviously the CA would make the decision as to exactly what to do. If she was insistent on calling the husband directly, I'd be less lenient of that. What does she think she's going to do? Talk him out of suicide in a minute or two, and then we'll be on our way? This is a pretty involved emergency situation, and police/EMS need to be the ones to be notified and get over there as soon as possible. If she wants to talk to him, she's getting off the plane.

If she's trying to make this call inflight? Um, no. Sorry. A: Cell phones don't have reliable signals in flight, so your chances of having a coherent, uninterrupted conversation are pretty slim. B: FCC regulations say no phones inflight, sorry. C: Again, let's involve the pilots and get 911 response started, instead of wifey playing therapist. He needs professional help, not a call from his wife.


Before throwing any stones at anyone, I want to hear ALL sides of the story. We don't have that .
 
MQAAord said:
There's very little that the wife could have done. Did she think she was going to make a quick phone call and then the flight would take off? Did she want the whole flight delayed while she dealt with the situation?

I guarantee we do not have the WHOLE story. Because only one person has been talking and we need to hear the crew's and others' versions of events.


Hypothetically speaking, as a former FA, here's what I would have done:

We're not told exactly when this text was received. Was it during boarding? Taxi-out? Takeoff? Per FCC regulations, cell phones have to be in airplane mode before takeoff, so you shouldn't be receiving texts during takeoff anyway, let alone trying to make a call. Good luck keeping the signal inflight, as you may or may not be able to make the call as the flight goes on.

If this was during boarding: "Ma'am, you're free to head on back up to the gate and take care of any personal business you need to." If she makes it back on the plane before departure, awesome, but we're not going to delay a hundred-plus other people for one person.

If it was during taxi-out: "Okay, tell me what's going on? It's an emergency? Here's what we'll do, what's your full name and address? I'm going to tell the pilots what's going on, they can call ops and get a 911 call started with your info. We might be able to go back to the gate and get you off so you can take care of what's going on." I'd actually be okay with a pax calling 911 directly themselves during taxi, but I'd tell the pilots ASAP whats' going on so they're in the loop and obviously the CA would make the decision as to exactly what to do. If she was insistent on calling the husband directly, I'd be less lenient of that. What does she think she's going to do? Talk him out of suicide in a minute or two, and then we'll be on our way? This is a pretty involved emergency situation, and police/EMS need to be the ones to be notified and get over there as soon as possible. If she wants to talk to him, she's getting off the plane.

If she's trying to make this call inflight? Um, no. Sorry. A: Cell phones don't have reliable signals in flight, so your chances of having a coherent, uninterrupted conversation are pretty slim. B: FCC regulations say no phones inflight, sorry. C: Again, let's involve the pilots and get 911 response started, instead of wifey playing therapist. He needs professional help, not a call from his wife.


Before throwing any stones at anyone, I want to hear ALL sides of the story. We don't have that .
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GoGo Wifi. Whatsapp for texts and Viber for voice/phone calls. Not that I have ever done that inflight................. :D
 
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