Wherever you go you’re often being videotaped. There are traffic cams that track your movements. When you get into an Uber the driving may be recording you. Home inspectors use them. There are cameras everywhere at airports.
On board planes, though, it’s usually just other passengers who may be taking video with their cell phones, and usually only when a fellow passenger in the cabin has a meltdown. There was a big push after 9/11 to add cameras onto planes, but unions pushed back because they didn’t want their members being monitored at work.
However one passenger reports that a flight attendant on board Alaska Airlines flight 636 from Seattle to Las Vegas may have had their own video camera on Saturday evening.
[O]ne of the flight attendants had what I am pretty certain was a camera attached to her shirt.
It was a small, 2″x2″ white box with some Alaska colors on it. It had a flashing green light. I think she was the lead [flight attendant].
…It had a dial/button on the right side, a camera lens, and then a small green flashing light.
The passenger speculated that the device was somehow a test of an official Alaska Airlines program, since the colors of what appeared to be a camera matched the Alaska marketing palette. Regardless, it was disconcerting to see what looked like a bodycam on a crewmember for this 9:30 p.m. departure.
With all of the passenger incidents over the past couple of years, including violence against cabin crew, it’s understandable that a flight attendant would want to document their interactions. However assuming that this isn’t an official program (and I’ve queried Alaska and will update if they respond) wearing something that looks like a bodycam is likely outside of an airline’s uniform guidelines.
Update: An Alaska Airlines spokesperson shares, “This is not being tested or discussed.” So anything that happened on this flight appears not to be an official program or project of the airline.
Why is this “disconcerting” to you? There is no right of privacy in a public place and I have no problem w FAs recording interactions. Often passengers video incidents but may not get the thing that started it. Like police maybe FAs need a bodycam to ensure accurate recording of any incident that escalates.
Can we just put all seatback and bulkhead cams onto a subscription app, already?
I mean, thanks to YouTube and TikTok, curious vidiots already know what’s really going on in “exclusive” airport lounges and “restricted” business and first class cabins. I’m suprised some SV enginerd and his airline galpal haven’t yet monetized these ubiquitous built-in cameras.
All passengers should have body cams rolling on their flights so they can record snarky flight attendants when they go on the rampage.
BigTee… I love it! Vidiots, enginerds…PERFECT description! As an airline employee, I wish that, after due process and found guilty, passengers who fail to follow instructions, disrupt the flight, cause a diversion, etc. GET THE BOOK THROWN AT THEM! Hefty fines, felony, yes…PRISON and a national do not fly list and (while the airline can’t get blood from a turnip) restitution for the cost of diversion. Hit ’em where it hurts…with swiftness not seen before.
When police officers want to supplement their income, some get a second gig between shifts. Some recommended occupations in 2023 are a bouncer at a bar, a mall cop, or an Uber driver. First, however, airlines should consider training these public safety servants as flight attendants due to the flight attendant shortage. Law enforcement professionals are qualified to subdue cantankerous and querulous passengers. In addition, they already have a uniform, may own a body-worn Go-Pro camera, and as public servants, could quickly learn to serve pre-departure beverages.
Well look this is where we are in 2023. Somehow the mentally ill and/or criminally inclined are on planes all the time fighting and misbehaving.
I want anyone that causes a real disturbance to be banned from flying permanently. Flying is a privilege, not a right.
I don’t see how body cameras would stop people from acting inappropriately… Cops wear body cams and criminals literally shoot at them on cameras. If they’re nuts, they’re nuts but now we’re in a world of liability and dysfunction where everyone needs to protect their well being and interests.
What’s the problem with body cameras? They’re good for controlling the Karens of the world. If I’m in public why should I fear being filmed by a security camera?
Oh Alan,
You really need to chill out. We’re you turned down for a job as a flight attendant?