JetBlue FA fired????

T

TonyC

Well-Known Member
Has anybody else heard this story? Can anyone authenticate it? Best I can get with Google is a link to Queen of Sky :(.


JetBlue Flight Attendant Fired For Fatigue

Long Beach, CA, March 23--JetBlue flight attendant Carolyn Livingston was fired last week after being bullied into working a flight that put her over the FAA maximum flight attendant duty period. The company accused her of sleeping on the job. She maintains that she was not, although she said she had tried to get herself and her crew released from the flight due to fatigue.

On February 17, Livingston, 35, was lead flight attendant of a four-member cabin crew that was to work a red-eye flight from Long Beach, CA, to Fort Lauderdale, FL, and back the next morning without a break. They were scheduled to report to the airport at 8:20pm and take off at 9:20pm. The flight was delayed two and a half hours, and didn't leave until 11:30pm.

During the flight, Livingston told the pilots to call the cabin crew in fatigued, as they were too tired to work the return flight back to Long Beach Airport, which would now put them over the FAA maximum 14-hour duty day.

When they landed in Fort Lauderdale, an In-flight supervisor met the plane and informed Livingston and her crew that there were no hotel rooms available in Fort Lauderdale, and that they would have to fly them all the way to New York’s JFK airport to get a hotel room if they refused to continue the trip. The supervisor also told Livingston that the return flight to Long Beach would have to cancel unless she and her crew agreed to work it.

Livingston’s crewmembers then decided to change their minds and work the return flight back to Long Beach.

“At this point I felt pressured to work the flight back, too,” Livingston said. “The supervisor intimidated me by telling me that they would have to cancel the flight if we didn’t work it. Plus, she didn’t seem to want to accept no for an answer. She informed us that they wouldn’t be able to get us a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale if we decided to stay.”

Livingston said she finally decided to go ahead and work the flight home, as it seemed to be the easiest solution for everyone involved.

Three weeks later, Livingston’s supervisor notified her of a report from a fellow crewmember that stated Livingston had been sleeping on one of the jumpseats in the back galley during the flight back to Long Beach on February 18. Sleeping on the jumpseat is a fireable offense at JetBlue. Subsequently, Livingston was placed on suspension pending an investigation.

On March 16, Livingston was terminated from JetBlue. The reason given: sleeping on the jumpseat.

“I was shocked. I absolutely was NOT sleeping on the jumpseat,” Livingston said. “Management concocted that as an excuse to fire me for attempting to call in fatigued for the flight.”

Fatigue is not a new issue for the airline crews. Indeed, it has been a major concern since the dawn of aviation. It is especially important since it impacts airline safety. Pilot fatigue has been blamed for many crashes through the years.

“Apparently safety is not JetBlue’s number one concern,” Livingston said. “Otherwise they would have allowed us to call in fatigued and relieved us from the flight. I told the oncoming pilots that we had called in fatigued, and they were shocked that In-flight didn't release us. In their opinion that was a complete no-no.”

Not only does crew fatigue impact airline safety, but also crewmembers’ health. In recent years flight attendant and pilot unions have been trying to push for stricter federal regulations regarding required crew rest and maximum duty days. Many airlines like JetBlue, however, find ways to intimidate their employees into flying past the federally mandated daily limits.

Livingston, a single mother, stated she felt she had no chance of appealing to get her job back.

JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said the company does not comment on crewmembers to the public.

JetBlue flight attendants are not unionized.
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WOW...wait until they get authorization to extend the duty day...Hopefully this isn't true, but it wouldn't surprise me. I don't see another F/A ratting her out unless there were other issues with her. I bet she wishes they had a union now...

TX
 
Ok, I had written an entire response and it seems to have evaporated.

Basically, if you think about this situation, there is ALWAYS more to every story. Here is the FA reg regarding duty time:

(14) A flight attendant is not considered to be scheduled for duty in excess of duty period limitations if the flights to which the flight attendant is assigned are scheduled and normally terminate within the limitations but due to circumstances beyond the control of the certificate holder conducting domestic, flag, or supplemental operations (such as adverse weather conditions) are not at the time of departure expected to reach their destination within the scheduled time.
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She didn't exceed (from what I can tell) any FAR's.

That being said, they were in FLL. FLL is a jetblue domicile. There had to be some reserves.
 
Question: If the pilots were shocked and the captain calls the shots, shouldn't the captain had said something to dispatch or someone about the F/A's needing crew rest?

how is it JB couldn't find a hotel room? FLL is an awfully large city!!

The only thing about reserves is that all the FLL reserves might have already been taken...

it is true that there are always 2 sides to every story though...
 
B767Driver said:
Where was the article published and author?
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If I knew the answers to these questions, I wouldn't have needed to ask the question I did. I don't know. Like I said, when I googled the subject, the only information I could find was on Queen of Sky's web blog. You may recall she is the Delta FA that was fired for posting inappropriate pictures of herself in uniform on the internet. Certainly, her agenda would be promoted by such a story, so I can hardly consider her a reliable source. I googled JetBlue, Jet Blue, Jet Blue FA, and I even googled the FA's name. Searching the web and the News, I found nothing.


Go figger...




B767Driver said:
There is no dateline.
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I thought this was the dateline:
Long Beach, CA, March 23--
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txpilot said:
WOW...wait until they get authorization to extend the duty day...Hopefully this isn't true, but it wouldn't surprise me. I don't see another F/A ratting her out unless there were other issues with her. I bet she wishes they had a union now...

TX
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wheelsup said:
Ok, I had written an entire response and it seems to have evaporated.

Basically, if you think about this situation, there is ALWAYS more to every story. Here is the FA reg regarding duty time:

(14) A flight attendant is not considered to be scheduled for duty in excess of duty period limitations if the flights to which the flight attendant is assigned are scheduled and normally terminate within the limitations but due to circumstances beyond the control of the certificate holder conducting domestic, flag, or supplemental operations (such as adverse weather conditions) are not at the time of departure expected to reach their destination within the scheduled time.
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She didn't exceed (from what I can tell) any FAR's.

That being said, they were in FLL. FLL is a jetblue domicile. There had to be some reserves.
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Kristie said:
Question: If the pilots were shocked and the captain calls the shots, shouldn't the captain had said something to dispatch or someone about the F/A's needing crew rest?

how is it JB couldn't find a hotel room? FLL is an awfully large city!!

The only thing about reserves is that all the FLL reserves might have already been taken...

it is true that there are always 2 sides to every story though...
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These comments may be appropriate if there actually was a JetBlue FA fired, and if this story is authentic. However, if it was fabricated, or plucked from some source like "The Onion", then we'd be making fools of ourselves by saying very much. I was trying to verify the existence of such an incident before offering comment.


If you can find any other reference to this story that would support its truth, I'd be appreciative.



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Nobody here heard about it either, and seeing how our job is to cover the airline industry...

We tend to take a higher level look at things, but the editors do have their ears to the ground and hear about things like this. Nobody's heard anything.

It doesn't mean that it's not true, just that nobody here has heard of it.
 
Sounds like they'll be looking hard and fast at representation.

Wait. JBLU has them on 5 year contracts. Nevermind.
 
TonyC said:
I thought this was the dateline:








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True...I suppose I meant a more complete title/dateline that typically incorporates the author's name and affiliation. Whenever you see one of these things written without that...it's usally not from a respected source.
 
Since all I could find was the Queen of Sky mention, I decided to go back and study it more carefully. As it turns out, the article is a Press Release that Queen of Sky helped Ms. Livingston compose based on e-mails they exchanged about the experience. Apparently, nobody picked up the press release to publish. (Or perhaps she never actually released it.)


The conversation that ensues on QoS's blog is somewhat entertaining, and it includes a few responses from the supposed fired FA herself. I'm beginning to think there is truth to the story, but I'm still very suspicious. I suppose we could send Ms. Livingston an email (her address is included) and ask her to join our forum and give her side of the story.

Here's a link to the blog - - I think the kid whose mom is a FA provides the most entertainment in the thread. :)

http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/?cmd=displaycomments&dcid=771&entryid=771


Truth or Balderdash?



:)




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I have no doubt that it is true...definitely a believable story. Hard to believe someone in the AP, or mainstream press would pick up the story to publish. I suppose people get fired all the time for questionable insubordination or performance related issues. Kinda becomes a he said she said story.

Oh wait...that's kind of like pilots and management too.
 
Wow, I have not heard of this one, with the information on hand, not sure how anybody can have an opinion one way or another.... According to the press release, they never said that Jetblue forced her to fly the flight, as far as the cancellation of the flight, due to crew rest problems, so be it, she was the Lead Flight Attendant.

Sleeping on duty, so, somebody from the crew reported her?

LGB-OAK
OAK-FLL
1 hour report
5 hour flight
2 hour delay
_________________
FLL-LGB
1 hour report
5 hour flight

Really need more information, as it is unfair to say who is right or who is wrong. Was she tired because she flew into the flight, did Jetblue intimidate her into working the flight.

Livingston said she finally decided to go ahead and work the flight home, as it seemed to be the easiest solution for everyone involved.

Three weeks later, Livingston’s supervisor notified her of a report from a fellow crewmember that stated Livingston had been sleeping on one of the jumpseats in the back galley during the flight back to Long Beach on February 18. Sleeping on the jumpseat is a fireable offense at JetBlue. Subsequently, Livingston was placed on suspension pending an investigation.

On March 16, Livingston was terminated from JetBlue. The reason given: sleeping on the jumpseat.
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Ahh, the "Queenofsky" episode. There's a person from the way back file that just brings a 'warm/fuzzy' memory.
 
This flight attendant is claiming a violation of FARs which clearly isn't the case. I've had this come up many times before. She needs to get her story straight. She was perfectly legal to go. If she was unable to act as a crewmember because of incapacitation from fatigue, and clearly stated that, it's a different issue. Another flight attendant stated it correctly on QoS's site:

Unfortunately, this is not a violation of the FAR maximum duty day for flight attendants. That FAR only applies to how flying is originally scheduled. So, if it was originally scheduled legally, the delay won't make it illegal.

This is a common misconception about the Flight Attendant FARs. The pilots have different language, and they really do turn into pumpkins and walk off the plane. F/As do not have that same protection, which is something that flight attendant unions have been fighting for.
 
I wouldn't trust a whole lot from the QOS site. She tried to get me tangled up in her case, in order for ALPA to set the precedent in defending me, then springboarding her defense off of that.
 
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