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Another violent onboard altercation caught on video

A heated moment from a scene captured by Surain Adyanthaya and posted to Facebook

“Maybe you’ll get videotaped too and it will be all over the news,” shouted an angry passenger at a flight attendant on a recent San Francisco-Dallas flight on American Airlines caught on video. Apparently a flight attendant violently grabbed a baby stroller from a mother, which set off this incident of tears, shouting and a near physical altercation.

According to a Facebook video posted by Surain Adyanthaya (see below), here’s what happened: OMG! AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her. AA591 from SFO to DFW.

Dallas News station Q13FOX reports, “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.”

After the widespread attention to last week’s United incident, prepare for newly empowered and enraged passengers to get feisty this summer as temperatures and tempers soar.

Here’s the full video from the American Airlines flight 591 incident on Friday night at SFO:

American Airlines responded quickly to the incident on Friday night, removing the flight attendant in question and posting the following statement on its website:

Statement from American Airlines

More details are emerging about the incident this morning and reported on the Q13Fox News site. 

You may be a veteran business traveler with millions of miles under your belt, but do you really know what your specific rights are if something goes wrong?

Following a tsunami of publicity about United Airlines dragging a passenger off a flight, the Transportation Department has put up a new web page that serves as a one-stop research center for air travelers’ rights.

Subjects covered on the new web resource include tarmac delays, flight delays/cancellations, reservations and ticketing issues, refunds, accessibility and discrimination, baggage issues, bumping and oversales, and passenger complaints. It also includes links to other consumer protection pages.

The updated DOT site goes into some detail about overbooking for example, it notes that airlines are required to conduct an auction to solicit volunteers who will surrender their seats. If there aren’t enough, “it is legal for airlines to involuntarily bump passengers,” DOT said. And “it is the airline’s responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities.”

When that happens, “an airline may deny you a seat on an aircraft based on criteria that it establishes, such as the passenger’s check-in time, the fare paid by the passenger, or the passenger’s frequent flyer status,” DOT said. “However, the criteria cannot subject a passenger to any unjust or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.  For example, an airline could not lawfully use a passenger’s race or ethnicity as a criterion.”

What do you think about these new incidents? Is this just a taste of what’s to come later this summer? Please leave your comments below. 

 

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Comments

  1. Actually the article said don’t rush to judgement. We only have the viewpoints expressed by the First Class Passengers that clearly didn’t see the entire course of events that started in Economy.

    A good point raised by the union is the threatening behavior of the First Class Passenger, a guy being labeled a Hero by some commentators who clearly added nothing to a situation that the flight crew was trying to de-escalate.

    “Hey bud – you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

    Why wasn’t this passenger tossed off the flight for threatening a Crew Member?

  2. What’s wrong with that statement? We only have the
    viewpoints expressed by the First Class Passengers that clearly didn’t
    see the entire course of events that started in Economy and the video that only filmed a portion of the events. The FA was clearly wrong but that statement by the union doesn’t absolve the FA either.

    A
    good point raised by the union is the threatening behavior of the First
    Class Passenger, a guy being labeled a Hero by some commentators who
    clearly added nothing to a situation that the flight crew was trying to
    de-escalate.

    “Hey bud – you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

    Why wasn’t this passenger tossed off the flight for threatening a Crew Member?

  3. The statement from the PAX to the FA was “IF you do that to me, I’ll…” Keyword that is “IF”, the PAX wouldn’t have issued his warning had he not seen the violence done to the woman and the baby (almost), and he showed complete restraint afterward – nothing unhinged about that. Note also he was not the only passenger, at the front of the aircraft, who saw what unfolded. I say he did right by his fellow passengers. Had he not done what he did, the FA would not have been exposed.

  4. I hope the writer of this gets to speak to mainstream media of his take of the situation. As it stands right now, we just have the video, and the hot headed passengers view and that certainly doesn’t tell the entire story.

  5. The passenger escalated the entire situation by threatening physical violence against a flight crew member.

    “Hey bud – you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

    How does that d-escalate a situation?

    Now the flying public is allowed to threaten Flight Crews every time an FA “almost” accidentally hits a baby?

  6. Agreed, the offending FA should have been removed.

    What about the Passenger threatening physical violence?

    What is his responsibility for his actions? All he did was escalate the entire situation to physical violence.

    Is this how we want the flying public to react the next time an FA “Almost” hits a baby?

  7. You obviously did not read my original comment in this comment thread regarding my opinion of how the FA reacted to the testosterone driven idiot that confronted him. If you had, instead of deciding you needed to “educate” me, you would have seen that you and I are in agreement about how the FA reacted.

  8. Here are the facts before the hot headed passenger chose to single evenhandedly cause another disturbance.

    – The women was being counseled by other FA staff.
    -The situation was being d-escalated

    Then:

    -Hot headed passenger threatens accused FA of bodily harm
    -Situation escalates even more.
    -Women gets even more hysterical

    How exactly did the Passenger help the situation? Now passengers are allowed to threaten crew staff with bodily harm with no consequence?

  9. Why was the FA allowed back on the flight/plane. Should never have happened. And if that passenger did not say something, you would never have seen how “thin skinned,” the FA was. “Stay out of it.” Um, no, don’t almost hit a kid in the head. FA on a power-trip.

  10. That FA should never be on another flight with passengers, any one of whom will case the FA’s anger and testosterone issues to resurface.

  11. The passenger clearly demonstrated how thin-skinned the FA was. The FA’s reaction was terrible. Was that passenger out of line, perhaps. But the FA screaming, “stay out of it,” and then saying, “lets go,” was totally out of line.

  13. Airline regulation will not help this at all. SWA has great customer service and has expended because of deregulation. Regulation simply allows only the rich to fly. The “golden age” of flying that never was. I was once a Silver member on USAir when they dominated PGH. Now I have competition. No more AA unless it’s necessary.

  14. this clearly is an incorrect account of what happened. The First-Class passanger would have seen this happen. This happened at the front of the plane. The person posting this likely was not on the flight. “1.) woman gets on the plane pushing a car seat type stroller with one child in it, carrying a second child on her hip and dragging behind a very large folded stroller that was too big for the overhead bin or to go under a seat. 2.) the flight attendant shown in the video approached from the back of the plane and informed her in a calm manner that there was nowhere to store the stroller.”

  15. well, most of the AA flight attendant/gate agents are snarly. I’ve had better service recently. But FA is a difficult safety/customer service job. If you can’t do it, do something else. American responded appropriately, but the FA’s and their union at American simply don’t care.

  16. oh, the “blame everyone else” excuse. If a FA can’t handle this, then they have the wrong job. Also, the FA is not the one enforcing 10 or 12 boarding groups–that’s a gate agent. And really, it’s not that hard. TSA personnel–also would not impact the “stress” this FA was allegedly under. He tried to enforce a stroller rule that no other airline has. The women spoke Spanish. Instead of getting someone who spoke Spanish, he grabbed it from her. While I agree that Airlines (except SWA) nickle and dime you to death, this is NOT an excuse as most of this has nothing to do with the FA in question.

  17. AA is terrible. I knew they would have to do something to keep up their reputation with United as the worst. Delta and SWA are so much better. Hey, living in a non-hub city (PGH) has it’s perks. I have competition. Might involve a stop, but I’d take SWA or Delta any-day over these airlines. (although at least United FA’s and Captains are generally helpful, unlike AA employees)

  18. according to multiple accounts the bone-head FA almost hit the passenger and the crew with the stroller. I really don’t care what was going on. The FA inappropriately escalated the situation and almost hit a passenger and/or kid. The fact American has suspended the FA is further evidence he did something wrong–as is the “blame everyone else” statement from the FA union.

  19. Well, you are already correct about #1. #2 may have already happened. #5 hopefully also includes train travel for domestic trips.

  20. No, what Munoz is saying is that they don’t want to fire him because the United Union is prob like the AA Union. On SWA this person is GONE.

  21. This is the typical experience you get from USAir (Doug Parker) run American Airlines. Their FA’s are the worst in the business. Of course, and Chris perhaps you could find this, the American Airlines FA Union stood up for this out of control flight attendant.

  22. Classy post. You obviously have nothing of intelligence to post so you decide an ad hominem personal attack is the way to go. Encourages discussion and provides great insight into how a rational person should act. Its a shame your obvious limited intelligence and overabundance of testosterone gives you an incredible amount of courage while sitting behind a keyboard. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8a0705fce06d65a27f1e9706642fee16c1f41034e1f8dbd7130f4d0a5e1ca4e5.png

  23. Gazing at the crystal ball:

    1. Union will protect the FA;

    2. Airline and government lawyers will see how to tweak existing anti-terrorism laws when passenger(s) escalate a situation and create a breakdown in order. Such an interpretation will be widely hailed in some circles as giving the hard-working and underappreciated FAs the power they need to ensure that the all passengers have a tranquil flight experience;

    3. Contract of carriage terms will disallow audio and video-taping once onboard;

    4. Airline websites will add a comments section to demonstrate that every situation has two sides, since there will always be yahoos who will post the most asinine contrarian views;

    5. Our Chris McGinnis will be asked to turn over subscriber data, especially for those posting comments critical of the aviation industry or government security agencies. Chris will refuse, be denied future access to airline perks, and will start a new, wildly successful blog about cruiseship travel, wherein every passenger gets a full-flat lie-down bed AND their own restroom in which to leave the seat up or down as they wish!

  24. Defend after the fact? At that point there were other FA’s around with the Women who seemed in emotional distress. What’s the point of threatening the FA at that point? What would have it accomplished? It just escalated the situation even more to the point that the women can be heard crying even louder. That customer should have been tossed out of that plane for making that threat against a flight crew member. That’s simply inexcusable behavior and I hope American bans him from all future flights. If he had any sense he should have help d-escalate the situation instead of acting the fake cowboy threatening to physically assault someone.

  26. Again, this flight is on the ground. The reaction by the F/A is completely uncalled for. If someone telling no one in this flight spoke Spanish to help difuse this situation? They will call for a doctor if there is an emergency. A simple phrase like “una momenta por pavor” and thing calm down. On the ground cabin and flight deck crews are not God. This ratcheted up way to quick by the F/A. There doesn’t seem to be a passenger who is standing behind the crew. I’ve seen (an so haven’t many of followers) passengers taken off and the cabin clapped as they were removed.

  27. Two things, there is no violence in this video, so what we have here is a clickbait headline. Then we have no idea what the stroller looks like, some of those are as wide as a car, just thinking it was too big to be stored on the plane. Now for the passenger: he was way out of line. Probably the last upgrade to first he will ever see and he was (my former life) getting pretty close to handcuffs time. I really feel sorry for the Captain, and the other F/A having to deal with the aftermath of this, but kudos to American that handled this incident promptly, not like United.

  28. Airline executives are asking employees to enforce yet more and more rules, regulations, fees, and seating setting up these conflicts between passengers and staff. They have to enforce some 10 or 12 group boardings, three different levels of “economy,” require payment for blankets, certain foods, and other amenities, and make sure that no passenger is getting anything for which he or she didn’t pay. It all started with fees for checked baggage which has made the boarding and discharge of aircraft a nightmare. And that’s after we have to endure the trials and tribulations of TSA personnel who now are enforcing a rule which requires a full body search of a 76 year old passenger who has an artificial knee. Is it any wonder that passengers are stressed to the eyeballs on taking a flight, and then they have employees and station managers who are evaluated on the basis of “on-time” departures. Airline executives brought this on, and I only hope they end up being the ones who pay the price.

  29. Another thing, the traveling public is giving the airlines a warning that they have to be better and not bullying passengers. In a way I feel sorry for most of the flight atttendants that do a great job, it’s always that one or two that create big, terrible news.

  30. Have to agree with Gary 100%, the airlines cheapness is starting to take it’s toll with decreased space on planes.

  31. The story of all this is how American airlines reacted.
    They put the flight attendant on leave until they get the facts and issued an apology that said the flight attendant could of handled the situation better.
    They not only reimbursed the women’s ticket along with the children, they gave here $1,000 in CASH (not vouchers) and they upgraded her and the family to first class for her journey to Argentina.
    Have to say that American realized that no matter what, this had to be handled quickly and went out of their way to help the mother who seemed to get terrible service from the flight attendant.

    It’s a terrible situation that flight attendants and pilots are put thought, they really have to keep their cool because with everyone taking out their cell phones to tape these things, the airline becomes the big loser on this.

    Just glad at the way American handled this, not letting it linger like United did.

  32. It’s pretty clear that the male flight attendant was abusive towards the mom who was trying to get on the flight with her baby. Dave, above, made up a story that reflects his misogyny, not the facts.

    “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.

  33. Great, threatening a flight attendant while onboard an aircraft makes a lot of sense. There is no excuse for how the FA reacted to it, I agree, but IMHO a passenger that unhinged should not be on board a flight with other passengers, any one of whom might cause his anger and testosterone issues to resurface.

  37. Not surprised! Sadly we in this country are not taught about morals, ” respect for elders & compassion for those younger than you”.
    I just wish we had far more competition on domestic flights. We need to allow foreign carriers to compete for domestic flights. I ALWAYS TRY TO AVOID any US carriers when flying out of or in to the country. That means NO UA, AA or DELTA. They are just terrible. Bad you are flying alone or with family with a child. The customer service on phone, the counter and gate agents and the flight crews , though not all but too many of them are ARROGANT, CONDESCENDING, RUDE & ALWAYS DISCOURTEOUS !

  38. Read the Q13Fox news that Chris linked above. Provided a good context and eyewitnesses’ accounts on the male FA’s behaviour.

  39. And that must have a great relief for the other passengers. Usually it’s the kid that’s wailing.

  41. Be prepared for more incidents like this. As the airlines have decreased capacity, elbow and foot room, etc. they have set themselves up for a lot of pentup anger among all passengers, so it does not take much for tempers to flare. Add rude and incompetent aircraft personnel to the mix and it is easy to see that all the ingredients are present for full scale riots to break out. Perhaps the airlines should be re-regulated and more flights, more room, and more flexibility will reverse this trend.

  42. It was very clear from the video, the gentleman was not the only passenger upset at the FA, but certainly the most vocal. In this video, the FA clearly lost his moral ground the moment he yelled back at the PAX. That patience and empathy thing….
    I remember very clearly from the UA incident, lots of pontification on why no one spoke up/stood up for the doctor. Well, in this incident, someone did stand up. Good for him. Good also for AA to take a very swift action for the passenger, and ensuring the “team member” will go through proper performance improvement plan.

  43. Wow that woman was sure spewing faux tears — its cry and cry and cry because in her mind the dollar signs multiply with each cheesy wail. Meanwhile the baby seems fine and some tool passenger’s only contribution to the situation is to jump out of his seat over and over and play cowboy and threaten people. I will say this, the captain of the plane should have stepped in and ordered the passenger to sit down and be quiet and removed the mother and child from the plane with medics not cops “so that she and her child could be evaluated.”

  44. I was waiting for a happy ending to that video. Like the big passenger bopping the stubby flight attendant on the top of the head and busting both his ankles.

  45. Unfortunately we did not see the entire incident. It would certainly appear that something happened to cause significant upset to the young woman holding the infant, and an investigation should definitely take place, and if warranted, the individual who allegedly could have caused harm to the infant disciplined. I am also hoping that the PAX who saw fit to stand up and threaten the airline employee was summarily thrown off that flight.

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