A former secret service member and “highly decorated military veteran” says he’s lost his career because JetBlue banned him after informing flight attendants that he was (lawfully) carrying a firearm with him on his flight to Florida.
He served in the military 23 years, became a secret service agent, and then a Department of Health and Human Services investigator. But, he says, since he’s banned from flying JetBlue he cannot travel for work.
- He’s required to fly JetBlue because they won the government contract for several routes
- JetBlue won’t let him fly
- So he couldn’t fly for work, and this ended his career.
The Bronze Star and Meritorious Service medal-winner says this had a “cascading and draconian effect on his life.”
He says that a JetBlue flight attendant claimed he failed to follow crewmember instructions, keeping his wife’s dog under their seat while traveling from Washington National airport to Fort Lauderdale on July 18, 2022.
While being scolded, he informed the crewmember that was “a legally armed federal law enforcement officer.” If I were that crewmember I’d likely have felt threatened. They wrote him up. He says that the airline’s investigation ultimately found that he wasn’t trying to intimidate the crewmember, but he remained on their No Fly List.
I don’t quite buy the damages here. I downloaded the city pairs and analyzed them.
- JetBlue has 264 contracts out of 13,372 negotiated routes. That includes to places like Tbilisi, Quito, Islamabad and Port-au-Prince.
- American Airlines has around half the routes. Being banned from American could present a problem!
- While federal employees, following their agency’s guidelines, usually will have to travel on the airline that won the GSA city pair that is not always true.
- Federal employees can take the train! They can also fly out of a different airport. For instance, JetBlue has the city pair for New York JFK – San Antonio, but not for Newark – San Antonio.
As a general matter anyway – and the specific processes and requirements can vary by agency – an employee can seek approval to travel on an alternative carrier for personal convenience provided it doesn’t incur additional cost to the government, and they should be able to travel on an alternate airline under exceptional circumstances such as a ban by the carrier. They’d likely need to properly document the ban and why it was given and obtain approval from their agency’s travel office or other appropriate authority within the agency.
Private sector employees also have to use contracted carriers at many big companies, although employees learn to game the system. Is the contracted airline cheaper? Just wait out booking the trip, the price may go up, and the non-contract (preferred) airline becomes sufficiently cheaper to be within policy. Or the fixed schedule of the trip just so happens to rule out travel on the corporate preferred carrier. Employees game their available travel times to avoid the schedule of the airline they don’t want to fly.
Surely the fact that an individual’s employer requires travel on a given airline as a job element, and the employee doesn’t qualify for such travel, doesn’t preclude the carrier from banning the traveler. At most it would mean they’re unqualified for the role – although there are usually alternatives. And the plaintiff would have some duty to minimize damages – if they’re equally employable elsewhere their ability to show harm will be limited.
The ultimate question here is whether JetBlue’s ban was wholly unjustified, and we’ve seen only one side of the argument. Even if it’s accurate that the traveler didn’t intend to intimidate crew they may have done so and that may be enough!
Clearly though Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s argument that a ban on one airline should be a ban from all airlines is stupid, though, because each airline has different standards and procedures for whether a passenger is welcome to fly them in the future, because it would be a massive anti-trust problem, as well as civil rights problem.
bringing up being armed in the midst of a conflict w/ a crewmember about something different was just stupid.
B6 probably could have looked past the whole thing IF there weren’t two issues mixed together.
Your logic, Gary, of being banned from B6 ending his career is questionable. He will likely lose the lawsuit.
and we have moved past the horrible period of widespread passenger misbehavior due to masking. No airline exec with half a brain will ever suggest that chapter or those policies be repeated.
Assuming that this all is true – very stupid to bring up “I’m armed” in a middle of a conflict with an FA.
Why on earth would one do that…?
Wonder if he was drinking (Americans drink way too much for some reason).
His wife and dog were with him, so this was likely not an official trip. Of course, he could still be armed as most federal agents are even off-duty. When did the confrontation take place? if it was after the flight was airborne, then why hadn’t he informed the crew earlier? If it was while the aircraft was still at the gate, then this could be a matter of just informing them at a poor time. Even then, JB admitted he did not threaten the crew. So why was he banned?
Yes, he could fly an alternate route or take the train, but he shouldn’t have to. It really seems as if many flight crews are on a hair trigger and just looking to get somebody kicked off a flight. We will never know both sides of this situation but I tend to lean in the passengers favor.
I retired from Diplomatic Security at State Dept. I was authorized when on official duty and required to be armed, when traveling commercial were required as courtesy to go into the cockpit and show our badge and ID credentials as well to show my boarding pass so they would know where I was seated.
When I retired I now have a state of Virginia conceal carry permit issued by my county police but it does not authorized me to carry a concealed weapon aboard a commercial flight.
One important thing never do is to show off your weapon which is concealed on your body while on active duty or when retired with a concealed carry permit issued by your county police.
How did he get thru TSA check point? I guess he had a US Government set of credentials and a badge. He deserves to have been fired. Like I said above you never show anyone that you are armed other than the cockpit crew in case of an emergency.
One more reason to Never bring Any Dog , except bona fide blind dogs , onto an airline . Dumb .
He never ought to have opened his mouth … just move the Forbidden Dog . Easiest solution .
When will America learn.. guns are bad!
I’ll check in after the next few 1000 children are dead and see how the disaster is shaping up.
I’m with @Tim Dunn on this one. When your group is causing problems on a flight and the situation is escalating, mentioning to the FA that you’re armed is really not the way to go.
I’m sure there is more to this story. I agree mentioning a gun while arguing with a FA, was dumb.
I don’t care how decorated he is, he pulled a dumb move.
Saying you are armed in a conflict situation amounts to a threat no matter how you look at it. Also I suspect the dog is a lot closer the pet end of the scale than the service end. Do not think he has a case.
That said, there needs to be an appeals mechanism for the no-fly list
I don’t like power-crazed in-flight waitresses, but this was clearly an Only-One trying to be an Only-One, and getting called out for it. Boo hoo too bad.
Yet no one address the root cause of this problem.
Authoritarian airline employee with absolute power with no checks and balance or accountability.
Fully disclosing that he is armed in a location where nobody is expecting is the correct way of not escalating the situation.
Just like how you tell law enforcement that you have a weapon.
What if someone else spotted the weapon, things could get ugly.
But in a world when a person becomes petrified by a junkie holding a feather. Crews would nuke everyone they want because they can on the most absurd ground of irrational fear or simply not obeying the authoritarian.
Moral of the story, never confront or threaten (not even passive aggressively) any member of a flight crew, if you ever plan to fly that airline again. Sounds like a meathead military bully who couldn’t handle being told what to do by a female with authority. I worked for B6. The flight crew/captain always knew who was armed on board and where they were assigned seats. I don’t know how this situation came to be, but I’m sure it will be investigated. In the mean time, I hope the military kicks the “victim” veteran out for his cavalier, threatening and unprofessional demeanor. Thank you for your service. Hope you enjoy Greyhound.
“When will America learn.. guns are bad”
Clearly offered by someone who is ignorant of history. Oh, and also applies a human trait to an inanimate object.
Bullshit! Yes JetBlue has contract fares between certain cities. But there are exceptions and ways around it. I’ve done it, for other reasons.
If his employer wanted to fire him, this was likely the excuse they were looking for.
“When will America learn.. guns are bad!”
Who is responsible for the over 100 people shot in Chicago last weekend, the gun, or the coked up lawless pieces of human debris pulling the trigger?
Wise up. Outlaw guns and the only people who will have them are the people who don’t give a shit about the law.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes.
Eskimo,
if he disclosed to ANY crew member on that flight that he was armed BEFORE the conflict w/ the dog, you would have a point.
It is very poor judgment to bring it up in the to of a conflict WHICH HE WAS A PART OF.
Whether he was armed or not had nothing do with the conflict about the dog nor would it have mattered to its resolution UNTIL he decided to play the “trump card” which blew up in his face.
I am not in favor of heavy-handed employees but the passenger, not the FA, tilted the discussion for no reason that was related to the dog issue.
Saying he was a federal agent was also irrelevant. He played stupid twice. With his status and with his gun.
B6 and his employer were justified based on the information presented here
If he is traveling armed as part of his official duties, there is a procedure for that and the pilot and flight attendants would know.
If he somehow got on board without adhering to the established procedures, then he’s in deep kim-chee.
If he were armed as part of his official duties and was stupid enough to somehow bring that up in the course of a dispute about not keeping the dog in the kennel, under the seat, he is in deep kim-chee with a topping of jalapeno sauce.
There is NOTHING more of a big deal than traveling as an armed law enforcement officer on official business.
This story seems to have one source at PYOK. At this point I am not reasonably sure of any of the details. I will await more developments. Sometimes stories like this one have a lot of details wrong.
He intimidated the FA plain and simple. He was banned because he demonstrated a lack of control. Law enforcement officers shall not permit their peace to be breached and shall never abuse their position. The FAs primary responsibility is to get you off the aircraft in the event of an emergency not to mix your cocktails. For the same reason drunks are kicked off he should be as well because he’s unwilling to follow even simple directions. He should have known all of this from his LEO flying armed class.
Also, there’s not a city pair for all destinations and other airlines offer DG or “me too” fares that match the CA/YCA fares for official travel.
He screwed up and needs to own his mistake.
The most logical possibility is both him and his wife had a hand bag, in addition to the dog. He had his firearm inside of his bag and needed to keep it in reach and under the seat. His wife also wanted to keep her bag under the seat( because you know, lip gloss, chiclet, makeup etc). Where does the dog go? Don’t worry we’ll just hold it thought the couple. Here comes the FA: you’ll need to put the dog down and put your bag overhead!!! I’m sorry ma’am, I’m an armed Federal agent and I need to keep my firearm within reach.
The obvious solution should’ve been to let his wife take one for the team and put her bag overhead. I’ve had FA try to tell me to put my bag overhead even though there was space under the seat for my small bag. I show my flying arm form and say I have to keep it within reach and that was the end of it.
The entire situation should’ve been handled better and shouldn’t have resulted in a ban. What’s the policy on holding dogs during flight though?
For Walter in the comments, your reference to the flight attendant as an in flight waitress shows your extreme arrogance and ignorance. You degrade all crew members. The first time an “in flight waitress” risks her life and throws your sorry butt out of a plane in an emergency you may change your tune.
Although I think you’ll just walk away with your tail between your legs and not even bother to thank her.
I don’t know how you sleep at night.
I hope you don’t have children.
I assure you, as a current Fed, there is a heck of a lot more to this story. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Don’t believe everything you read. Story has more holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese.
I’m retired flight attendant of 44 years of service. I’m betting that all airlines in the US, including the one I worked for, require that anyone armed whether on duty or not had to identify themselves properly at TSA security and then again at the gate with an agent (who would tell all crew at or prior to that passengers boarding) and depending on the carrier probably had a form that had to be delivered subtly to the cockpit through the flight attendants so that every working crew member on board the aircraft was aware that there was someone legitimately armed on board who might help in an emergency on board and where they were seated. How were those flight attendants not told? Makes me wonder how he got through that process and on the plane without proper notification to all flight attendants and pilots.
Based upon what we’ve been told here, no matter what, the passenger was an idiot to make it a point to bring up that he had a gun with him while in a mild confrontation about the dog. I’d have immediately notified the cockpit and asked if he was supposed to be there or not (and why weren’t the F/As told?). If not, I imagine the flight would then have been met with security. It seems that JetBlue was justified after their investigation to ban the armed passenger and now he’s living with the consequences. Bad move buddy.
What a load of bs. If the story here is factual what is described is brandishing, a felony. He should be charged with the crime just like anyone else would be. Being a federal Leo does not excuse this.
I wanted to add my two cents into this conversation because clearly there is some major misunderstandings about this situations that one side of the party over-stepped and I believe it to be JetBlue. I honestly think that someone on their crew over reacted and blew a hissy fit towards a military veteran whom obviously had more higher authority & possibly power as well and also keeping calm during this whole ordeal and the flight crew probably like that one bit and they chose to go after him by pushing their own authoritarianism on him because they wanna have everyone under their control, even though I think this is wrong in so many ways
One. I agree that telling the FA that he was armed was dumb. She should have known if he followed normal procedures. The manifest codes if nothing else.
As for losing his job, the SS and other employers have “ unrestricted travel” as a condition of employment. Not being able to travel as needed ends the ability to work.
There is likely a lot more to this one than what is here.
I don’t see the pax winning this one.
@Dude26 “Americans drink way too much for some reason.” Yeah, the US ranks 37th in average alcohol consumption per >15yo. That’s behind most all of Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. You make a reasonable comment and then decide you need to make a swipe at the US to finish up?
@Robin “I honestly think that someone on their crew over reacted and blew a hissy fit towards a military veteran whom obviously had more higher authority.” Wow, now I get it. Airlines offer the military early boarding because they are the highest authority on the plane! Let’s see: active military, retired military, captain, first officer, then cabin crew. Got it!
This damages claim sounds like he found an ambulance-chaser lawyer.
He clearly did not behave appropriately on the flight, as some other commenters have explained.
David Read – get off your knees, flight shill. They ARE waitresses. The F you think one of those 70yo heifers on the legacy airlines are going to do in an actual emergency? Not a damn thing.
If your response to a simple ask is, I am law enforcement (let alone, I am armed!), you deserve whatever punishment is doled out. There are too many police officers who think they above the law, which in this case is the flight attendant.
I am assuming the FA didn’t believe nor trusted the couple to relocate the animal prior to take off. The government agent in question probably brought up the carry remark to try and convince the FA that they were trustworthy and would comply at the time required. “Hey, I am authorized to carry a sidearm, you have nothing to worry about”.
Gary–
Enjoy reading your articles and keeping up with what’s going on in commercial aviation–but please allow me this admonition: In the article “JetBlue Travel Ban Shatters Veteran’s Career: Decorated Ex-Secret Service Agent Sues for Justice,” you refer to the gentleman as a “Bronze Star and Meritorious Service medal-winner.”
No armed service members “win” a medal–they earn them (sometimes at the cost of a limb or their life). A better way to say it might be “Bronze Star and Meritorious Service medal recipient.”
Thanks for your excellent reporting!
Signed,
A proud Distinguished Flying Cross recipient