Are we gonna have a problem today? Frequent flyers know not to cross cabin crew, because they’ll be met by police. Just about any ‘back talk’ on a U.S. airline can quickly be turned into a violation of 49 U.S.C. § 46504, “Interference with flight crew members and attendants.”
Sometimes, though, other passengers feel the need to stand up to what they see as an injustice in the way others are being treated on board. That appears to be what happened as customers on an easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Malaga, Spain mutinied to prevent the airline from removing two black men.
Reportedly the two men ‘huffed’ at a flight attendant when asked to put on their shoes for the plane’s takeoff as the aircraft taxied out. The crewmember appears to have escalated the encounter, and asked the pilot to head back to the gate – where police were called and armed officers entered the aircraft to remove the men who were described as “disobedient.”
Video of the incident shows other passengers objecting to what was going down. You can hear “don’t get off” and “sit down.” The men were allowed to stay, and the flight attendants were taken off.
@easyJet attempting to remove 2 black boys from the flight for huffing at a member of the crew ! Absolutely disgusting. We’ve been delayed 2 hours and counting! Police on board @Gatwick_Airport #gatwick #lgw @SurreyPolice @TheSun #Easyjet pic.twitter.com/hkC3Aa4rb4
— LG (@LPGLDN) August 5, 2021
The airline says the flight attendants weren’t removed for bad behavior, they simply timed out (exceeded their duty day), but the delay caused by the reaction of other passengers led to the removal of the first crew and boarding new flight attendants in their place.
The passenger who took the video describes himself as “a racial justice ambassador” and offered, “it seems so dramatic to call the police and have a plane with 160-odd passengers turn around and be delayed for someone huffing at them” and that there was no other conflict involved.
According to easyJet,
EasyJet does not discriminate against any individual. Safety is our highest priority and there is nothing to suggest that discrimination played any part in the issue onboard.
The primary responsibility of our crew is for the safety of everyone onboard.
Our crew must ensure that safety requirements are followed by all passengers and as part of their role must check prior to take-off that everyone is compliant with these.
This is particularly important for passengers seated in emergency exit rows where crew ensure there are no loose items during take-off.
After a two hour delay of the flight, the plane’s captain had little patience, reportedly warning everyone that while they succeeded in getting a new cabin crew, “if anyone doesn’t listen when the new crew arrive, you’ll be removed and arrested.”
Taking your shoes off on a flight is gross. I sat next to some dude on a flight back from Miami once and his shoes stunk so bad you could smell them from 4-5 feet away.
Two sides to every story
Not enough info to make a judgment.
Do note the difference between the calm, quiet, civil British way of speaking as opposed to the Jerry Springer cacophony we have here in the USA.
Keeping your shoes on during takeoff and landing is just a smart safety measure. During an emergency evac you don’t want to be barefoot on a hot debris strewn runway. Wallet, keys, passport, shoes…the only things you need to take with you in an emergency. Be prepared.
Sword swinging passengers, outrage over a Joe Biden sign – the past three stories on this site are about ‘passenger incidents’ and it’s becoming tedious. I get it, there is a lot of crazy stuff going on. I want to read about loyalty points, the aviation industry, and be a more informed traveler. These dime museum stories do an injustice to the excellent blogging that VFTW does.
It can be turned into a violation if the public fails to make clear that it applies only to flight safety. Free speech doesn’t end on a plane. You can criticize and argue and it is not a violation or crime. It’s free speech. Passengers need to stand up for themselves during and after the fact and hold flight attendants accountable. If a flight attendant brings up “are we going to have a problem”, say “regarding flight safety absolutely not; I have a problem with your poor behavior and demeanor. It is not acceptable for a flight attendant. I will be filling a complaint with the airline over your conduct.”
Video evidence is key to protect yourself. Bs with flight attendants and pilots abusing their authority over flight safety only happens because passengers stand by and do nothing. If all passengers pointed to the flight attendant as the culprit when police board and passengers say they want to file a witness statement against the flight attendant, it will go along way to making sure things will work out for an innocent passenger in the end. If we just sit quietly, we are at the mercy of evil power trippers.
In this case, I don’t know what happened. I do know that one group commits a disproportionate amount of violent crime every single freaking place they are in the entire world. I know that this group has the worst culture and ruins everything they touch. I don’t blame our brothers and sisters for being annoyed at dealing with a group that has proven itself to be trouble. It’s always the same “youths” that terrorize our streets.
@Jackson Waterslide Is it white people from flyover states? See January 6 terror attack on US Capitol
The racist, classist undertones of the conversation on this blog is starting to eclipse my enjoyment of the blog itself.
You have falsely accused the flight attendants of racism. You deserve to be successfully sued for libel and ostracized, and removed from publishing, for your own actual rasism.
Shame on you, View from the Wing
If January 6 was a “terror attack”, why has not one person been charged under the Insurrection Act?
I agree, Mark. The near constant racist and uncivil remarks in the comments have really ruined this website.
It’s 2021, Gary. Nearly every other website started either moderating comments to prevent this or shutting them off all together, years ago. I guess maybe you enjoy this crap.
Who wrote the racist headline? Is it Gary Leff the article writer? Or a VFTW editor.
Shame on the writer for not clearly providing the facts and denouncing the racism of the woke passengers.
Shame on the headline writer.
Shame on VFTW.
@Mark
@ MissMarirose
It is gross for others to have to deal with your stinky feet or shoes.if you want to be barefooted wear sandals
The western world is becoming so dumb. Our quest for “justice” is literally making everything barely functional.
@MissMarirose
“It’s 2021, Gary. Nearly every other website started either moderating comments to prevent this or shutting them off all together, years ago.”
You *are* aware that moderating comments, improperly done, amounts to censorship, right? Ever notice that those “every other website” *always* censor non-Progressive viewpoints? At least, on this website, you can *choose* to read or *not* read the comments, so the 1st Amendment is still alive and kicking!
Exceptions should be made, of course, to censor comments inciting violence against others!
Quoting Miss Marirose. “ Nearly every other website started either moderating comments to prevent this or shutting them off all together, years ago.“
This is the problem Mark and Miss Marirose that individuals such as yourselves cannot handle reading about other peoples opinion and viewpoint so you simply want to shut down the comments similar to what Yahoo and other news organizations have already done. God forbid we allow freedom of speech on this or any other blog due to the possibility of offending you. “Grow up”! and stop trying to bully these bloggers into falling in line with your PC, Woke or whatever the hell you call it way of thinking!
@StrictlyFacts: the fact is the 1st Amendment has nothing to do with a private website deciding that it will only permit certain comments. Stop getting triggered by someone commenting that a private business should monitor its website comments.
Back to EasyJet. They have a problem. My wife & I had our passports stolen in Italy; got new passports but, of course, no visa. EasyJet in Milan would not let us board w/ a passport & police report to leave the EU. Airport security told them we could travel on the docs we had & to let us board. Ticket agent told me as we boarded that if it up to her we wouldn’t be traveling. Wrote to EasyJet & got a form letter back.
@Jay
You’re technically correct about my mis-application of the words “1st Amendment” with regards to private enterprises; I should have used “Freedom of Speech” as a generic concept that is provided for, through our once-esteemed Society under a purported Constitutional Republic.
But I still stand by my original thesis regarding censorship of comments!
Thanks for your correction
Huffing: Inhalant abuse, or “huffing” as it is more commonly referred to, has become common practice among teenagers. It involves inhaling (or “huffing”) fumes from your everyday run-of-the-mill household products, such as glue, cleaning products or paint.
@Jay, @StrictlyFacts
The First Amendment may actually apply in some of these cases — if government actors are leaning on key parts of the internet ecosystem (e.g. Twitter and Facebook) to define acceptable speech in a certain way, then the online censorship from private actors that we’ve seen more of over time may really be driven by the government.
Another race baiting article. Are you going full Jerry Springer and giving up on any pretense of being a travel blogger?
“The near constant racist and uncivil remarks in the comments have really ruined this website.” Umm maybe you should look at the articles being published that generate these type of comments. I get that maybe you want to push one view of the incident because that fits your particular worldview but it doesn’t work that way. When inflammatory articles like this are put out you will get different viewpoints. If you can’t handle it then maybe don’t read the comments? Don’t expect everyone to agree with your specific worldview.
I’m not a lawyer, but simply declaring (in your headline) that the flight attendants _are_ racist doesn’t seem like a good strategy, especially since UK libel law is much more generous to the plaintiff than US. There’s a reason news articles always use the word “alleged”.
@Jackson Waterson
Talking about being racist, you should know Jack. Your racist diatribe gets old. I’ll bet you don’t have the guts to stand up to a flight attendant let alone a pilot unless one of them is 80 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the story had led off with this:
“The passenger who took the video describes himself as “a racial justice ambassador”
then the only ones wasted their time even reading it are part of this cop out mentality!
What exactly happened that you made you say that Easyjet FA is racist? Maybe its time people go back and start learning the real meaning of “Racist and Racism”.
Thank you to Gary Leff for calling out racism.
The person who took the video called themselves a “racial justice ambassador”.
bwahahahaaha
Sounds like someone if very full of themselves and something of a sanctimonious pompous ass that has an unpaying job, a Twitter handle and an IG
Jackson Waterson (if that is even your real name) — poster boy for Trump and the Republican Party!
@john
Unfortunately not. Many Republicans and Trump still champion law enforcement when law enforcement enforce the laws of our leftist enemies. It’s illogical for us to support the enforcement of laws we don’t consent to and don’t support. In these cases we have flight attendants acting as government agents and abusing their roles as safety agents for flights when someone makes a legitimate complaint about poor service or does not agree with a flight attendant’s judgement on non safety related issues. Many Republicans are blinded to the fact that cops are not the good guys when they are complicit in the system; cops are the ones using force. Cops arrested Christians for going to church during Covid. Cops arrest people for speech in Europe. Cops arrest people for making choices for their own bodies (drugs) which goes against the definition of not wanting the government to tell us what to do.
Many Republicans also shuck and jive for 13% of the black vote when 87% hate our guts and it would be wise to reciprocate instead of bending over backward to kowtow to a group that is responsible for nearly all the problems in the U.S. It’s not whites who fill our streets with unprovoked violence, commotion, rap culture, and ruin schools and neighborhoods. Republicans get nowhere by pretending it’s not one group who causes most of our problems and pretending race doesn’t matter. Race matters. Whites should not have to put what is in our best interest aside to placate other groups.
Unfortunately for conservatives, the Republican Party and elected Republican leaders are in the pocket of the same people controlling the Dems. They tell us to do nothing as western civilization falls.
An appropriate way for the flight attendants to handle this: “Gentlemen, you are welcome to make yourself comfortable once we have reached altitude, but during takeoff and landing you need to protect your feet by keeping your shoes on. In case of an emergency and evacuation, you need to protect your feet and will not be in a postition to put your shoes back on. You will be thankful that your shoes were already on. Trust me on this.”
@TM
You are are part of Antifa, correct?
@Jackson, you make some very good points
@TM is it your man bun or rainbow colored thong that’s twisted too tight? The raised on concrete crowd are always fun to laugh at.
I’m with ccrab … who cares about these travelling morons making fusses everywhere? I’m interested in upgrades, bonuses, loyalty schemes, cruises, hotels, airlines & destinations. The comments on these reports of misbehaving peeps are often the rantings of the mal-adjusted, who use this site as a platform to share their whacko views about the world. Let’s get on with solid travel subjects.