A passenger on board Delta flight 453 from Atlanta to Salt Lake City on Monday night was removed from the aircraft on arrival by airline personnel. She was described by another passenger as an “incredibly obnoxious woman who was quite drunk.” She was seated in the exit row, and she was being taken to “get her bag checked” for alcohol, because of how she presented herself – but cabin crew hadn’t served her.
Well, that happened.
by
u/gmd23 in
delta
Here’s the twist I wasn’t expecting. She’s returned to the airport the next day looking for her phone. She didn’t know what happened to her. There’s speculation that she may have been roofied. As a passenger describes it, a man in the exit row “switched seats with” the middle seat passenger “to sit next to her.” And he kept offering to drive her home:
I figured she had too much to drink and allegedly some rando onboard was trying to creep on her telling everyone he’d drive her home and nobody was gonna let that happen. She had no idea wtf happened after the fact this afternoon when she came back to the airport to find her phone.
There was reportedly “a very LDS family” seated behind the exit row that was “real uncomfortable” with what was happening.
So it turns out that appearing drunk and therefore met and removed by airline staff may have saved her from being pursued by another passenger.
Sounds like “being pursued by another passenger” is a euphemism for the risk of “being sexually assaulted/raped by another passenger.
It also sounds like the TSA doesn’t detect and grab all restricted drugs at the screening checkpoint, but then again this is the TSA that fails repeatedly to stop prohibited weapons/explosives/incendiaries at the screening checkpoints.
GU,
the amount of drugs that it takes to incapacitate a passenger is well within the personal limits that passengers are allowed to carry and below what any security screening techniques could detect.
Very sad for the lady if that is what happened; hard to believe that anyone could allow themselves to be compromised by a stranger.
I am certain she has filed a police report and went to the hospital for drug testing- she should have – and police and DL nail the person.
Usually there is more to these stories, and I appreciate when Gary actually follows-up with us afterwards. Sure, speculating and ‘hot takes’ can be ‘fun,’ but, like, good to know what the real deal is, too. Hope she gets help. If actually an attempted-sexual assault, that’s awful.
Regardless of the cause of her inebriation, the passenger needed to be deplaned. Flight attendants have identified situations where a passenger is a victim of trafficking or abuse, however it is not the airline’s job to police every situation.
There is an American Texas-residing guy — with a wife and kids in Texas — who works in the ONG sector whom I’ve repeatedly encountered on economy class flights from CPH to ATL or other SAS/SkyTeam North American international gateway airports. He has a history of trying to offer car rides to random women traveling alone after he tries to booze them up on flights while he himself is ordering drinks. Real creep, and he even lingers around the baggage claim belt in the FIS area waiting for them even when they have already refused a ride from him while on the planes.
@ Gary — Does Eric Swalwell fly Delta? Just asking…
@GU Wonder
“It also sounds like the TSA doesn’t detect and grab all restricted drugs at the screening checkpoint, but then again this is the TSA that fails repeatedly to stop prohibited weapons/explosives/incendiaries at the screening checkpoints.”
It is not TSA’s job to grab restricted drugs in the first instance. I do not care to have them police more than the presence of liquid drugs which do not comply with 3-1-1 (and I am not certain I want them policing even that).
In any event, if this was an involuntary intoxication as suggested, such does not identify a TSA failure.
“It also sounds like the TSA doesn’t detect and grab all restricted drugs at the screening checkpoint” Not to pile on, but I regularly carry drugs in my carry on: aspirin antacids, Imodium, and a prescription drug. I don’t know what roofies look like (even after an online search). TSA has never inspected my pills. So, how can they tell my legal pills aren’t roofies. And, if efforts are made to stop this, what is to prevent some creep from sneaking them past TSA in the “prisoners’ handbag”?
Also, what is a suspected incapacitated/intoxicated pax still sitting an emergency exit row ? Wouldn’t it be required of the crew to reseat/swap her out ? Isn’t there a F.A.R. regarding this ?
@Tim Dunn,
“Hard to believe that anyone could allow themselves” to be compromised by a stranger?? Sir, IF we’re taking about getting drugged, the woman was on a plane, and got a drink from the drink cart. No one should have to monitor their seltzer every time they board a flight.
What is hard to believe is that someone would do something as awful as to drug another to remove their personal agency.
don’t disagree, nope. but the reality is that tight personal spaces are precisely the places where low life such as this act.
@bossa: If she was roofied she wasn’t impaired when she sat in the exit row.
Tim
Is it possible the passenger was just shellshocked because she had been told how many Skypesos some mathematically challenged delta fanboys are willing to pay for delta biz class — 500K or so?
@Bossa, yes the FARS covers this in 14 CFR § 121.585.
See subsection (e)(1)(ii):
“(ii) Has a nondiscernible condition that will prevent him or her from performing the applicable functions listed in paragraph (d) of this section;”
Ehud
Tucson
FAA Commercial Helicopter Pilot
@Ehud Gavron — Tucson? Cool. Ever seen the the aircraft boneyard (309th AMARG)?
First, it’s deeply offensive that anyone would put the blame on the passenger for having some creep mess with her drink..Second, it shouldn’t be difficult to identify the creep who likely did it. So why is this guy, especially if he’s a repeat offender, allowed to keep flying?
A very similar situation happened to me one year ago. Atl to pit. Wish there was a way to contact the victim to understand more.