Westjet cabin incident, good thing it wasn't United or AC

[Donald]

http://globalnews.ca/news/3503307/westj ... -k-flight/

WestJet says it’s investigating after a Toronto-area couple returning to Canada from the U.K. was escorted off an aircraft Sunday shortly after an alleged altercation with a flight attendant.

Video from passenger Maria Frota’s cell phone appears to show a male flight attendant striking the woman’s phone in an effort to obscure the device.


Frota, 57, said she was attempting to film a discussion she was having with the airplane’s captain while she and her husband Bryan Bridgwater, 79, were aboard WestJet flight 25 at London’s Gatwick Airport.

Frota said she attempted to place a bag containing blood pressure medicine in the overhead compartment above their seat, but the flight attendant refused to allow it.

“The reaction of the guy from the first moment was insane,” Frota told Global News in Toronto.
Frota said she asked the flight attendant if she could place her carry-on bag above the couple’s seat, but was told by the employee “that’s not how it works” who refused to allow it.

She added tensions rose and she was displeased but not threatening in any way, while Bridgwater said the flight attendant became “very aggressive.”

Frota said the flight attendant then asked her to accompany him to the flight deck because the captain wanted to speak to her.

“You respect us, the crew,” the flight attendant told Frota according to the video shown to Global News.

Inside the cockpit, the WestJet captain tells Frota you “can’t necessarily have your bag directly above your seat.”

“What I need to know is that you’re going to respect the flight,” the captain calmly asked Frota, who clearly responds “don’t worry.”

Seconds later, without any visible provocation, the video shows the flight attendant telling Frota and the captain “there was no ‘wrong foot,’ she literally yelled at…” at which point the flight attendant is seen striking Frota’s phone.

“It’s not going to happen, I don’t want her coming with us, this is not going to go well,” the flight attendant said.

The flight attendant then struck Frota’s cell phone a second time on video, before it stops recording.

Frota and Bridgwater said they were told to leave the flight by the captain at that point.

They then took a bus to Heathrow airport, where they returned back to Toronto on a flight through Reykjavik, Iceland.

In a written statement sent to Global News Monday evening, WestJet said it’s aware of the incident and that there was “unacceptable behaviour of the guest” before boarding.

“Numerous attempts had been made by the crew to de-escalate the situation but to no avail. The operating crew subsequently determined the guest was too unruly to fly,” WestJet spokesperson Lauren Stewart wrote in part.

“It is WestJet’s position that the guest’s travel with us would have had the potential to compromise the safety of our crew and the other guests.”

However, WestJet said it’s investigating and will be following up with all flight attendants, including the staff member seen on the video.

“Importantly, it is not acceptable on the part of our flight attendant to attempt to remove the phone from the guest’s hands as appears may have been the case,” Stewart said.

“The safety of all of our guests and crew members onboard our flights is always important to us and we will continue to review our response to unusual situations like this one.”

But airline passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs, who drew the case to the attention of Global News, said the incident illustrates a serious problem.

“I see no justification for the actions of this flight attendant,” said Lukacs from Budapest, Hungary.

Frota and Bridgwater, who travel frequently to Britain and Brazil, say they are familiar with air travel procedures and did not deserve to be excluded from the flight.

They added they are now out of pocket about $2,500 to pay for an alternate way back to Canada.

Best part is the poor husband, at the beginning you can hear him telling her to just sit down. Guess she should've listened!!

['97 Tercel]

Haha, Gabor!! (who never really knows the full story on these incidents but comments like he does)

[co-joe]

I really think its high time FA's get issued cattle prods.

[Oxi]

WHERE IS THE COCKPIT SAFETY

[Mr. North]

I'll tell you one thing. Whatever goodwill I have towards resolving a situation, it is instantly gone the moment a camera is shoved in my face.

[Jean-Pierre]

What the hell is he doing grabbing at her? He is the aggressive one. Staff need to be better than this.

I also do not like this culture of just kicking anyone off the flight right away as soon as some flight attendant has a frustration with someone.

[atphat]

I'll tell you one thing. Whatever goodwill I have towards resolving a situation, it is instantly gone the moment a camera is shoved in my face.

+1.

[cgzro]

I've never seen AC staff be anything other than polite and I have probably done 3/4 million miles with them or so.
I've seen plenty of rude passengers however.

[HiFlyChick]

I've never seen AC staff be anything other than polite and I have probably done 3/4 million miles with them or so.
I've seen plenty of rude passengers however.

You've been lucky if you've never seen rude FAs on Air Canada - I had a stopover in Toronto (or was it Montreal...?) once and was going to stay on the aircraft since it was quite short, but had to use the bathroom. When I went aft the FA politely told me they were servicing the lav so I would have to go into the terminal, and reminded me to take my boarding pass and ID. When I went forward, a second rude FA told me in an angry screechy voice that I couldn't leave the aircraft. When I told her that I needed to use the washroom and would be quick, she growled at me to return to my seat.

Sure, there are plenty of rude pax out there, but don't kid yourself, there are some really rude FAs, too. Neither one have the right to be rude, but the big difference is that the FAs are being paid to be there and the pax are paying - if you can't keep your temper, get another job that doesn't involve dealing with the public...

[mato]

You kind of have to herd the passengers like cattle or 5 min before departure the manifest won't match the count... The passenger who said they will stay on board and was boarded now is in the terminal and it will take a 30 minute delay to sort out what chaos just happened.

I guess westjet is now canada's worst airline for the day. Everyone is a freaking reality TV show director today, time to start briefing our emergency procedures with our crew:

OK if a passenger is about to record you... If you can before the recording starts kick them in the face so they drop their phone... If recording has begun resort to passive methods of resolution...

[Jimmy2]

Maybe you should stop thinking of passengers as cattle.

[Donald]

It's an interesting video, showing how not to de-escalate a situation, and how little control the captain has over the back end.

First off, not a great setup for conflict resolution having a frantic passenger in the flight deck, in full view of the rest of the plane. Captain, as calm as he was, should've taken the discussion to the bridge, unless of course he got ambushed by this lady.

Secondly, that fa needs additional training. Clearly he's worked up, and the cell phone put him over the edge. He needed to remove himself and get help from the other fa's.

Thirdly, the erosion of captain control is sad. It appears that he has things under control and going in the right direction, when the fa snaps. After that, there's no way he can salvage it. If he leaves them on, he risks crew mutiny. Kick her off and you get global news.

Just my 0.02

[confusedalot]

It's an interesting video, showing how not to de-escalate a situation, and how little control the captain has over the back end.

First off, not a great setup for conflict resolution having a frantic passenger in the flight deck, in full view of the rest of the plane. Captain, as calm as he was, should've taken the discussion to the bridge, unless of course he got ambushed by this lady.

Secondly, that fa needs additional training. Clearly he's worked up, and the cell phone put him over the edge. He needed to remove himself and get help from the other fa's.

Thirdly, the erosion of captain control is sad. It appears that he has things under control and going in the right direction, when the fa snaps. After that, there's no way he can salvage it. If he leaves them on, he risks crew mutiny. Kick her off and you get global news.

Just my 0.02

yep.

[Old fella]

Just goes to prove that all airlines are subject to issues of confrontation between passengers and flight crew for whatever reason right or wrong especially in the age of cell video capture. In my experience as a user of airline services, it isn't the said airline employees but the obnoxious and rudeness of passengers that concerns me most. I can give countless examples of such, believe me.

[Rowdy]

I think the publicizing of all these incidents is allowing more passengers to justify poor behaviour and attitude.

[sanjet]

Regardless of the issue, the flight attendant's decision to initiate physical contact with the passenger to stop recording was unacceptable, specially with the aircraft at gate with doors open.

[Ricktye]

I believe you are closer to the truth than you realize! A lot of industries/businesses, perhaps now-a-days including WestJet have to get back to the point of remembering that they are in a service industry, they are in business to serve the customer nothing else! Agree, safety should never be compromised, but rememebr the old adage, the customer is always right and should be accomodated if at all possible. That's all passengers, not just the high payng ones.....

Maybe you should stop thinking of passengers as cattle.

[Aviatard]

they are in business to serve the customer nothing else! [...] the customer is always right

You might wish that to be so, but I'm pretty sure companies are in business to make money. Customers are most definitely not always right.

[Meatservo]

They are "customers" until they are on board; then they are "passengers". The same way crew members are only "employees" until they board the aircraft. Most passengers on a commercial air service are customers, some are employees, some are guests of the company, etc. All passengers have legal responsibilities that come before the privileges they purchased. The same way that the crew have legal responsibilities over and above their service to their employer. The responsibilities of the crew and the passengers that are in addition to the corporation/client relationship are described by the law, in black and white. If a member of the crew gives an instruction to a passenger that is lawful, it must be obeyed. If the crew member isn't "nice", then he might be failing in his obligation as an "employee". But if the passenger fails to comply, then he is failing in his obligation to the laws of our country.

Sorry about the pedantic tone. This wasn't well handled by the flight attendant, obviously. He clearly failed to live up to the expectations of his employer. But the passenger failed to live up to the expectations of our society. She sure is a salty old thing.

Of course, the flight attendant is the type of angry, aggressive little power-bottom that pushes everyone's buttons with their over-the-top fussiness until it's difficult not to react negatively. I think the captain's behaviour was just fine and the flight attendant basically created a no-win situation for everyone who was hoping for a different outcome.

Poor show on both counts really. I feel sorry for the husband and the captain, they both have the same kind of problem, if you think about it.

[confusedalot]

I dunno, maybe I am too forgiving.

The salty old lady was just that, a salty old lady. Turning this sort of personality into some sort of aviation threat seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

I would have calmed them all down. Be nice, get to where you want to be, end of story.