Article from BTNews 24 APRIL 2017
American in cabin fracas
Cabin crew behaviour was back in the news at the weekend after a video emerged of an American Airlines flight attendant who allegedly struck a passenger with a baby buggy then threatening to fight a passenger.
Witnesses said the footage, filmed on a flight from San Francisco – Dallas, appeared to show the flight attendant provoking an infuriated passenger while yelling “hit me” after he allegedly “violently” took the buggy from the mother and hit her.
The video, uploaded to Facebook by passenger Surain Adyanthaya, was viewed almost 500,000 times within 24hr.
She posted: “OMG! AA Flight attendant violently taken 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.”
American said in a statement it had begun an investigation and was “disappointed” by the actions of the flight attendant, who had been removed from his job while the investigation takes place.
The statement added: “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.”
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franco mancassola, USA
American Airlines has joined the ‘fight club’ too! Now we have seen it all. Flight attendants and ground crews arrogantly pushing paying passengers around, removing them forcefully from the aircraft against their will, oblivious to the fact that they are the passengers that pay their salaries and their generous perks. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when one of the most terrifying thoughts for an airline was to lose even a single passenger. The airlines have discovered that the consumers are really a pushover and that their wallets can be pilfered with impunity and their tolerance pushed to the limit. In the airline industry that I knew, the consumer was always the king. Now the passenger is just an inconvenience that needs to be dealt with by the airline with the minimum of effort. And don’t dare to complain, otherwise, summoned by the crew, at the other end there may be Federal Marshals waiting for you.