Here’s a really crazy video that was uploaded yesterday of a woman on a Delta Connection flight who had issues, yet seemed to be having fun with her issues. Other passengers on the ground in San Antonio actually seemed to be enjoying the performance, at least until the whole flight was asked to deplane.
Language is not safe for work, but the woman offers an ongoing narrative where she’s even the one claiming the airline says she’s disruptive while she says the airline denies it. But ‘they ain’t seen crazy yet’ they’re going to see tri-polar, not just bipolar.
She’s not drunk, she says — so she announces to the flight that they should find a reason to take her off the plane. Police come onboard and she denies there was a disturbance.
I don’t say this often but the whole 8 minutes are worth watching — it’s better to see someone else’s video of this happening of course than for it to happen on your own flight. The incident ended peacefully, though, and for that we can all be grateful.
The person who took the video from a row back and across the aisle reported that “we all had to deplane so they could detained her.”
Deplaning all passengers before attempting to remove/detain a passenger is going to be the new go to move. No witnesses or video reduce any claims to he said she said. It has a secondary benefit of aligning passengers against the disrupting person rather, as their removal will cause a more significant delay due to the whole plane be deplaned and re-boarded.
Interesting. I’m going to disagree and believe that this was handled badly by Delta and the Police, and think that this is emblematic of the contempt these parties have for passengers. The fact that this video is so entertaining makes it too easy to overlook the problems with what happened here.
Yes, this woman is highly idiosyncratic, but I think it is a leap to call her “insane,” and there is no evidence in the video that makes me think she is at all dangerous. She is upset, but that doesn’t mean that the FA didn’t upset her, and we have no idea what happened there. I would say that its equally likely that the FA was at fault as she was, but knowing that many FAs can be needlessly confrontational, I might even give her the benefit of the doubt. There is no doubt however that this is a power play by the FA in trying to get her tossed from the plane and to avoid having to deal with her. We all meet people everyday that we would prefer not to deal with, but that is not our choice. Why do FAs get the unquestioned choice about which personalities they just find too much to deal with? This mentality that the airlines are always right in these situations and that they have the prerogative to act arbitrarily, capriciously, to be judge and jury to remove any passenger, for any reason, and that should not be questioned, really needs to stop.
I have more criticism for the police, who I believe badly mishandled this situation. Why is the role of government police to intervene on behalf of airlines against their customers in simple commercial disagreements? I can’t think of any other business in which the police can be counted on to provide automatic muscle when their customers become dissatisfied. Police are supposed to be objective, but tell the woman that the airline, FA, and Captain tell them that she has “caused a disturbance,” imply that that settles the matter for them — they are neither interested in her side of the story or the version of any eyewitnesses to these events — and tell her on that basis she must leave the aircraft and is not entitled to use the ticket she paid for to be transported. This greatly oversteps proper police behavior. It might be one thing if they simply said to her — more politely and with more humanity instead of the way they behaved — that they don’t know who is right or wrong, but that the plane is Delta’s, and that they are merely taking her off because its their property and all other matters are between it and her. These police are not Delta’s private police, but they acted like it.
BLM
Totally disagree with Mak. Passengers are bound by the contract of carriage and the airlines have the right to act when they feel the need to. This is not unlike a store owner calling police when a customer is unruly and asking that person to leave.
If you don’t like the rules, don’t fly and/or ask you legislator to change the laws.
The police in the video showed a lot of patience.
I called the video insane, not the woman.
The fact that the plane has been delayed at the gate “for hours”, and without air-conditioning, makes me wonder why the aircraft wasn’t deplaned earlier and the entire issue could have been avoided. Did Delta compensate?
I haven’t watched the video yet but i am alarmed by the idea that that the police remove everyone from the plane before detaining her. That really seems like a move on their part to get rid of witnesses. It also seems more dangerous having all those people moving around during a confrontation vs in their seats out of the aisle.
Seems like she has been watching too much Wanda Sykes and just thinks she can do whatever she wants. If I was a passenger on that flight I would be beyond pissed off at her. If I was Delta I would ban her for life. I also like how she blames Trump for the situation, typical.
@Gary My mistake.
@Todd I think that is a very facile analysis, and really a cop out that ignores right from wrong. It is unarguably true that as a practical matter, the airline can do what it wants, and could act far worse to any of its passengers who are at their tender mercies. But this is not thanks to the “contract of carriage” which is just boilerplate with no legal meaning — except that the United States Congress has placed airlines above civil law and absolved and immunized airlines for any and all liability to its passengers for fares and services. The US stands practically alone in the world in forbidding its citizens from going to court to challenge such arbitrary policies. To me, the video tells a story about the abuse of the weak by the powerful, but might does not make right, and just because they get away with stuff like this everyday, doesn’t mean that this represents justice or the state of the law (but for Congress intervening on behalf of a crony industry that makes lots of political contributions).
Maybe she was hoping to become the next person to be attacked by airport police so she could also get her 15 minutes of fame and huge lawsuit payout. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we start to see more people out there trying to provoke a violent removal from an airplane for their share of the spotlight and cash payouts.
She was hoping to get removed from the flight so that she could sue Delta for tens of thousands of dollars. Throw her ass in jail. Sick of seeing our minority population causing the majority of problems in this country.
Looks like the predictions came true. Police will be hesitant to do their job and everyone will get bounced off the plane more often. Be prepared for more delays.
“I need all the checks.”
Pisses me off just watching this. Not because this lady was pissed and irritated at essentially being held hostage on a non-functional plane without aircon for 2 hours, but that when someone finally has the audacity to complain, the response it to call the cops. This is wrong on so many levels.
@Mser, we don’t see the entire interaction that happened between the lady and the flight attendent prior to the start of the video, so I think it’s difficult to form any opinions yet as to whether or not the cops should have been called. However, I’ll certainly tell you that if I was a passenger on that plane, I would not have felt comfortable or safe flying with a woman to was about to “get tri-polar up in this bitch”, and I don’t think it was an overreaction to call the police. Thankfully, these police did not overreact in the same manner as the United incident, so I think we can all be thankful. Also, what else could the airline have possibly done? One someone starts going off like that, do you think they should be rewarded for their behavior with a free flight voucher or points? That would set a pretty bad precedent and would encourage everyone to complain and cause a scene all the time simply to get free points/vouchers…
So the flight is already delayed by hours, I recall about 5 years ago when that would happen that a email apology would hit with a voucher before landing. Now it’s just par for the course.
Also interesting again it’s not a mainline aircraft but a regional company. There’s not enough evidence presented to say who was wrong or right but after several hours on a hot plane in Texas what do you expect.
As for the Police response was respectful and the crux is a civil matter, police can only enforce existing laws so they can’t be expected to arbitrate a customer service disagreement. At the same time I wish people would stop with the contract of carriage. Congress has been bought and paid for and the rules were written for the industry thru our system of legalized bribery. The main lobbyist for Airlines for America vacations with the head of the house oversight committee – let that sink in. There’s been reports of that in msm especially as the airlines try to take control of the ATC system from the government.
Several scary issues arise here:
-Don’t know what was said between her and FA, so power lies in the hands of the FA. I have been in similar situations where a simple question of getting a drink or ‘any’ info on delayed flight got me a question from the FA of, ‘are you going to be a problem?!’
-so the police work for the airlines?
-why was the hot plane full of passengers sitting on a tarmac for hours with no water distributed?
-deplaning before ‘dealing’ with ‘disruptive’ passenger?
-there most likely will be disruptive and out of bound passengers trying to ‘obtain’ something from the airlines.
Maybe the airlines should take a good look at WHY there seems to be so much antagonism between their representatives and their passengers?
Gary – why did you post a video of a partial situation that only shows a very obviously frustrated and overheated passenger who only wanted to get home?
Crazy or not, Trumps fault or not, the only thing you can say to any airport personnel these days is hello, yes or no. Anything else seems to be an potential flight risk. It’s all about the training and direction these employees get. The rent-a-cops are following direction given to them just like the rest of the sheep… some will agree and others will disagree. Discovering exactly how many bored people reading these comments agree is not what I’m after. Wake up ladies and gents, we all have a bit of crazy and all disagree with how the world is these days to some extent. The fact remains, the big ole airport precautions pendulum has swing and it isn’t coming back to a balance anytime soon. Accept the fact that regardless which airport employee speaks to you, you don’t win and you’re delusional if you think otherwise. Be a sheep and follow if you want to get to your destination and realise that when there is a disagreement, there is no sense in arguing your point. Its not giving up, its called picking and choosing your battles. Get on with your business and fly less or not at all if you have such a problem with airport rules.
Just out of curiosity are you more drawn to videos of black passengers? Because there are certainly as many white crazy videos out there.
Some here don’t seem to think this behavior could somehow be a problem while bulleting thru the sky in a sealed tube at 35,000ft. I COMPLETELY disagree. Her language alone should have had her removed, it’s incredibly offensive and definitely not something young people and children should hear or be around. She likewise makes numerous veiled threats toward the flight attendant, the captain and the airline under the guise of “comedic” rant. Any and all threats toward cabin crew, I might add, must be taken seriously and are a federal offense.
hey Mak. power play from the flight attendant? Ridiculous. It’s the Capt’s decision, bother way. Who said, gonna beat yo ass? That’s threatening language. Get aggressive, Off you go.
@John if there are crazy passenger videos I am missing please send them my way!!
Jennifer McHerron says:
April 20, 2017 at 8:07 pm
Maybe the airlines should take a good look at WHY there seems to be so much antagonism between their representatives and their passengers?
You want a budget price? You get a budget experience.
If someone talked smack/caused a scene/etc/etc while in your house—would you get rid of them or just put up with it???
I wanna get me a check!