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American Airlines employee challenges passenger to "hit me" after incident on flight

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R

RBH

Member
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Video: http://jalopnik.com/american-airlines-employee-allegedly-hit-woman-with-str-1794552514


DALLAS — Video of an altercation on an American Airlines flight Friday shows an airline employee challenging a passenger to hit him after a flight attendant violently grabbed a woman’s stroller, according to eyewitnesses.

It’s unclear what happened before passengers on flight 591 from San Francisco to Dallas/Ft. Worth started recording, but video shared on Facebook shows a sobbing mother clutching a young child toward the front of the plane, asking employees to give back her stroller.

According to multiple witnesses, the woman, who is from Argentina and was flying internationally, brought her stroller on the plane. When the flight attendant attempted to remove the stroller from the plane, there was an altercation, which resulted in the stroller striking the woman and nearly hitting her child.

Olivia Morgan was standing in the doorway of the aircraft with her 8-year-old daughter waiting to board when the altercation happened.

“The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby with the second baby in a car seat on the ground next to her,” she said.

Morgan said the flight attendant was “violent” when taking the metal stroller from the woman and nearly hit the baby with the stroller.

“He stormed by me with the stroller and I said something like, ‘What are you doing? You almost hit that baby!’ And he yelled at me to ‘stay out of it!’ just like he does in the video,” she said.

Morgan said she talked to the woman about the incident. The woman said a female flight attendant told her she could look for space to store the stroller because it folds up very small, but if there was no available space, she would need to check it at the gate.

“She was looking for space when the male attendant tried to take it away from her… and she said she told him the other attendant had told her it was okay to look,” she said.

According to the American Airlines website, small strollers can be checked at the gate but there is no policy about strollers in the overhead bin.

In the video, a male passenger can be heard saying that he’s “not going to sit here and watch this.” The passenger stands up in the aisle and asks the flight crew, “What’s the guy’s name that did that with the stroller, I want to know the guy’s name.”

Moments later, a male flight attendant boards the plane, and the passenger who stood up says to him: “Hey bud, you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

The flight attendant points his finger back at the passenger, moving toward him as he fires back, “You stay out of this!”

When the passenger jumps out of his seat, the flight attendant holds his hands out and says, “Try it. Hit me. You don’t know what the story is.”

Tom Watson, who provided Tribune Media proof he was on the flight, said he was sitting in the first row behind first class.

“The lady and her two children were seated near the back of the plane. She was somehow able to get her stroller on board and back near her seat,” he said.

Watson said he’s not sure if the woman tried to put the stroller in the overhead bin. A short time later, a flight attendant approached the woman and told her she cannot have the stroller on the plane.

“She refused to let him take it and she was almost to the point of shouting,” he said.

The flight attendant then asked for security personnel, which “escalated” the situation, according to Watson.

“The flight attendant and the woman started making their way to the front of the plane. They were at the front of the plane near the crew area. The woman was holding on to the stroller and refusing to let go,” he said.

Watson said the flight attendant’s tone was “aggressive” and the woman was refusing to let go of the stroller, which escalated the situation.

The flight attendant then responded by jerking the stroller from the woman, knocking her in the head and nearly hitting the children, according to Watson.

“The flight attendant should not have been so aggressive and should have been more aware of the kids,” he said.

The woman was escorted off the plane and the flight attendant returned to the plane a short time later.

“The woman knows not to bring the stroller on a plane, she refused to let it go… she was shouting, so she is also at fault in my opinion,” he said. “But don’t get me wrong, the flight attendant should be way more professional than he was.

According to the airline, the woman elected to take another flight and was given upgraded accommodations for the flight.

The airline issued the following statement regarding the incident:

"We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family’s needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip.

The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident."

The video was taken the same day it was reported that United CEO Oscar Munoz wouldn’t be promoted to chairman after video went viral of an incident two weeks ago in which a doctor was bloodied and dragged off an overbooked United flight.
Click to expand...
http://q13fox.com/2017/04/21/video-...ler-incident-american-airlines-investigating/
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
I need to know if the baby has a criminal background before I give my hot take.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Three points of failure. Bad communication about stroller. Refusing to let go of the stroller. Idiot second attendant.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
Good on the passenger who stood up. The situation sounds like it was kind of complicated an there was a lot of miscommunication, but just yanking the stroller away from the woman was pretty uncalled for.
 
M

Murugo

Member
No policy about strollers in overhead bins sounds like a central cause for this incident. Regardless, the attendant should not have forced the stroller out of the mother's hands or lashed out at other passengers.
 
K

Korey

Member
Bronx-Man said:
When did airlines all decide to lose their shit at the same time?
Click to expand...

I think it's more that people realize now that they don't have to take the airlines' shit anymore.

So start recording the moment it looks like there's gonna be an incident.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
Part of the problem with these planes is you've got people packed in like sardines, and there's barely room to put anything. Meanwhile, business class areas take up half the space of the plane. Why not have separate planes if you want to take up space for the sale of charging people more money, to relieve the density of everything and everyone else on the plane?

I can't imagine being an overweight dude over 6ft. I can barely sit in any comfort as a slim short dude. It's unnerving.

But yeah the service blows. I recently visited Japan. There's an enormously stark difference between Japan customer service and airports compared to the US. People are restless, angry, TSA offensively shouting at people, bossing people around, stirring up shit in the US.
 
F

Fred-87

Member
Boem said:
If this wave of controversy means airline companies are going to put more effort into making sure flying doesn't totally sucks balls (as it does right now), I'm all for it.
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I have never flown in America or Asia. But everywhere else i flown to was perfect. Got treated with respect and care the many times i flown.

Maybe European service is much better then American. Even countries you dont expect like Russia was perfect the times i flown to there.
 
C

clay_ghost

Member
Fred-87 said:
I have never flown in America or Asia. But everywhere else i flown to was perfect. Got treated with respect and care the many times i flown.

Maybe European service is much better then American. Even countries you dont expect like Russia was perfect the times i flown to there.
Click to expand...

I heard services on American Airlines are usually bad or non existent while services on Asia Airlines are usually great because of the service culture ( No tipping culture in Asia and thus a level of standard service is expected) . However i never heard of people getting beaten up or threaten on American Airlines until recently .
 
L

LeroyPantwether

Member
Crimson_Gold said:
After they refused to get rid of the baggage check fees. It was all in after that
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This is honestly what ruined domestic flying in the US. Nobody checks a bag and the overhead storage becomes chaos. It Significantly adds stress, increases boarding time, and increases the time it take to deplane. People with luggage so heavy they can't get it into the bin on their own.
 
E

EatinOlives

Member
From my experience it as American airlines that was full of rude, combative employees and attendants, so this surprises me less than the United airlines incident.
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
How difficult is it to just talk to people in such a way as to not cause a confrontation? Airlines are going to end up having to send all cabin crew on courses just showing them how to speak to people.
 
K

kmfdmpig

Member
US based carriers are really showing the world just how awful they truly are. It's shameful that the country with the first commercial flight is now home to some of the absolute worst airlines in the world.
 
T

Two Words

Member
kmfdmpig said:
US based carriers are really showing the world just how awful they truly are. It's shameful that the country with the first commercial flight is now home to some of the absolute worst airlines in the world.
Click to expand...

This isn't really new. Look at the car industry and internet service.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Hope he loses his job. Quickly. Fuck that scumbag.

People typically don't put strollers on overhead. But the staff let's us tag them and the crew stores them right near the entrance of the plane so parents have them immediately after disembark.

Why and how this was miscommunicated is one thing. But this idiots handling of such a trivial matter shows he's either too dumb or too burnt out to be doing that job.

Get him the fuck out.

Alligatorjandro said:
Why is that passenger standing up
Click to expand...

Cause he sees another passenger being hit by their own property by a belligerent employee while they're holding a young baby.

Some folks aren't inclined to sit idle and watch something like that go down.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
I miss the days when flight attendants used to quit in epic fashions by grabbing a couple of tiny little drinks and jumping off the slip and slide.

Now every one of them is being revealed to be an asshole.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
The major airlines have mostly been awful for years while also raising prices. I'm glad they are getting some payback in negative press
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
Polioliolio said:
Part of the problem with these planes is you've got people packed in like sardines, and there's barely room to put anything. Meanwhile, business class areas take up half the space of the plane. Why not have separate planes if you want to take up space for the sale of charging people more money, to relieve the density of everything and everyone else
Click to expand...


Because those few business and 1st passengers are keeping the plane in business.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Admiral Woofington said:
I miss the days when flight attendants used to quit in epic fashions by grabbing a couple of tiny little drinks and jumping off the slip and slide.

Now every one of them is being revealed to be an asshole.
Click to expand...

He was literally fabulous. I wonder what happened to him.
 
K

Koomaster

Member
How about helping this lady find a place for the stroller and if no suitable place is found tell her in a calm manner it's not safe to just have it out and she'll have to check it. But you know, give her the opportunity to look and help her look. That would be customer service.

Just yanking it away without regard for her or other passengers nearby is pretty thoughtless. You in that much of a hurry that customer courtesy goes out the window?
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
BadAss2961 said:
Neither one of them wanted to fight.

Hold me back bro!
Click to expand...

I have a hair trigger temper and have gotten into that situation a couple of times. Your fight or flight switch has broken and jammed in fight but then you're thinking, hmmm I might go to jail. But at that point you're seeing red and amped up on adrenaline.

I think the big dude was genuinely ready to go but was having jail thoughts.

Last year I chased a car.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
Why do people fail to realize you are being recorded when you go outside. Doesn't make his actions right, but my god these people are stupid.

Maybe they want the free vacations or something.
 
T

teiresias

Member
As much as I loathe social media, I'm glad that the technology we have today is helping us hold these companies to account for the behavior of their employees. Maybe they'll start weeding out the people that want nothing more than to go on power trips against customers out of preemptive fear of coverage.

Now if only cops caught on camera were getting held to account as much too.
 
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