Marilyn Parver is taking her story to the media after JetBlue had her arrested and walked off the plane in handcuffs for refusing to delete a video recording she made of an altercation between passengers. She told Christopher Elliott that JetBlue accused her of interfering with a flight crew (a federal crime) and threatened to blacklist her by adding her name to the dreaded “no-fly list.”
I am a 56-year-old grandmother who has never had so much as a speeding ticket. But on July 26th, I was taken by armed officers, in handcuffs, off JetBlue flight 195 for refusing to delete a video I had taken of a minor altercation between passengers over a screaming kid.
The flight crew made up a charge of interfering with the crew. My recording proves I did nothing wrong. I never even stood up. I was left with the threat that I will never be able to fly on JetBlue, that I will go on the no-fly list, and have a report written about me filed with the FAA.
Parver has turned the footage over to ABCNews (apparently we should watch for her on Good Morning America) so that ABC’s legal team can fight off the pitbulls at JetBlue.
The Kingman Daily Miner also has a description of the incident:
Approximately 30 minutes after the dispute, Parver said she was approached by the flight crew who were asking passengers questions about the altercation. When Parver told them she had recorded the incident, they requested she accompany them to the back of the plane, Parver said.
There she showed the video to three or four crew members, Parver said.
“After viewing the video, they demanded that I delete it,” Parver said. “I asked, ‘Why?’ The head-stewardess went as far as to tell me that I had broken a law by using an electronic item during the flight.”
At that time, another flight attendant accused Parver of wanting to put it up on YouTube, a video-sharing Web site.
“I do not even know how to download a video on the Internet,” Parver said.
After refusing and returning to her seat, the crew asked Parver to return to the back of the plane again, she said.
“This time they told me that the captain demanded that I delete the video,” Parver added.
Parver requested to speak to the captain by telephone to confirm the demand. She was not granted this request.
“If the captain had nicely asked me to delete the video, I don’t think I would have disobeyed a pilot,” Parver said.
Parver again refused the flight crew’s request. At that point, one attendant told Parver that if she disobeyed the captain, federal agents would be involved and she could face criminal penalties.
“This was all a case of bullying,” Parver said.
Grandmother arrested after refusing to delete JetBlue fight video [Elliott]
Woman detained by airline over video [Kingman Daily Miner]
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Hmmm, Why do I see Cartman as a FA???
Screw you guys. You are FA’s, not a holy being in the sky.
You can only REQUEST / DEMAND that the recording device be turned OFF, not to have information on it deleted.
Next time I am on my laptop working on editing my videos on the flight, do you think you can tell me to delete items from my system?
NOT!
@: I guess the 16mm films that my grandfather took in the late ’60s/ early’70s of the nice stewardesses (before they were called flight attendants) on board planes should now be considered “contraband”???
@Advertising Guru: If you’re in a public location and they’re not making any money off of it? Yep. If YouTube is making ad dollars from broadcasting it, they can contact YT about it.
@mariospants: While it may be private property, by law it is also a public accommodation. Ergo, just because you are on the premises of a private business they can’t arbitrarily constrain otherwise legal conduct.
@: I bet a woman could bring a personal massager on with her – could she use it during the flight?
“If the captain had nicely asked me to delete the video, I don’t think I would have disobeyed a pilot,” Parver said.
WTF? Ooh, if the studly pilot instead of the mean air waitresses had asked…. When did pilots become gods? (Answer: when those Northwest pilots managed to land the plane that barrel rolled 2 times over Michigan. But of course, they made the illegal maneuver that caused the roll, so …. aw, screw it.)
The mistake granny made was in admitting she’d filmed it. Never admit you’ve taken a picture in or near an airplane. It’s just more trouble than it’s worth. Just do it, get your kids to post it on youtube, and be done with it.
@Inglix_the_Mad:
See, had the flight attendant done that to me, I would have motioned to set my crutches aside, smiled blithely at the woman and asked in my nicest tone,
“Certainly, I would be happy to give up my crutches now for the flight, which one of you is going to carry me down the aisle to my seat?”
Streisand Effect FTW!
@Advertising Guru:
What rights, exactly, was she violating? Was she violating their expectation of privacy in a public place? It was a violation of their privacy to record a display that they were so kind as to perform in front of dozens of people?
Oh, I get it, it was a copyright violation.
Jet Blue. Formerly known as ValuJet, weren’t they? Blew up their own plane with oxygen generators, if I remember correctly. I don’t care what you change the name to, I would never fly an airline that, through laziness and careless behavior killed 105 passengers and 5 crew members.
@drdom: You’re thinking of AirTran
@drdom:
NO they didn’t You’re thinking of Airtran – which is now a completely separate company.
wow totally ridiculous. i keep my cell phone on in every flight and just turn on Airplane Mode. as far as i know that isnt illegal. talk about bullshiting to get your way. i wanna see the video, it was written like it had nothing to do with the flight staff but they continued to overreact
@: Just because you can carry it on doesn’t mean you can use it-your pager must be off at all times, for example.
@Advertising Guru: You really have no clue about peoples’ “rights.” When you are in public, you have no expectation of privacy “rights.” With regards to it being a minor incident, it only takes a half a second to become a major one. She did the right thing by video taping it.
JetBlue needs their asses sued for having her illegally detained. She committed no crime and they had to of falsified reports to have her detained. Either that or the cops are complete morons that need to be fired and demoted to working security at Best Buy… oh, wait… a parking structure…
@ Inglix_the_Mad: sure comes down to what the individual purser’s mood on a flight is. I flew 4 long-haul segments on crutches, blown-out knee etc. Wheelchair assist to/from the gate and so on.
Three of the segments, they pre-boarded me. One of those, I had a linen-wrapped bundle of ice in hand before the plane had completed boarding. The fourth flight, however, was a nightmare … nasty, narrow single-aisle aircraft, 3+3 seating where they grudgingly moved me out of the window seat to my previously assigned aisle seat.
The worst? They let me have one of my crutches for the “walk” down the aisle but took them for the flight. When I asked how I was supposed to get to the bathroom (no weight on that one leg)? “You’re young, just hop, honey, and balance on the seatbacks.” No understanding of how painful the jarring of the hopping would be … or was.
@trujunglist: Sheesh, if I were in an emergency exit row, you can bet your grandmother’s house I wouldn’t *comply*, I’d pop open the door and slide away. Prosecute/sue me? Trauma, stress, etc. Bite me.
@TechnoDestructo: Exactly, if you’re brazen enough to behave like a jackass in a public space, where do you get off complaining?
@: I’m an almost 59 yr old grandma and I can record a video, but I do not know how to upload anything anywhere. I can post a comment – but that’s as far as my computer/internet knowledge extends! I don’t think it’s at all uncommon for people my age not to be able to do these things. That is why those of us at my age who do not work in computer connected areas fall behind in the technology evolution.
@linus: Haven’t read all 113 comments yet – but the video is supposedly of 2 passengers and a kid – not the flight crew and stewards. So probably posting it on YouTube isn’t a good idea. I don’t understand the interest the crew has in this.
If this is the Marilyn Parver I’m thinking it is, she is a former makeup artist and Mrs. Georgia who posed for Playboy in the 1980s.
probably same reason hospitals don’t let you photograph/video births anymore… if they fudge up, they’d rather it not be recorded for posterity and all the flippen world to see.
of course, after reviewing it and seeing there was nothing on there incriminating against the flight staff, and they admitted you couldn’t see the people being recorded… why they made such a stink is beyond me. some people obviously have too much free time to think of ways to be dicks.
The law is very clear on this. If you go onto someone’s private property and take pictures, the pictures you’ve taken exist separate of any trespass you’ve committed. No one has any legal power to force you to review your photos or make you delete them. A cop can’t do it. A security guard can’t do it. A flight attendant or pilot can’t do it. If there is a “no photography” sign and you take photographs, you don’t have to delete them. You may have to answer for trespass, however.
My advice: Go ahead, delete the (video, file, whatever)!
Most camera or video flash drives use a FAT32 filesystem. What this means is, it’s possible to recover (yes, undelete) files off of these filesystems.
My personal favorite is a Linux based data recovery utility named photorec(1) DRU by Grenier (the software is free!).
Cheers
I see JetBlue’s obnoxious ads all the time: “Jetting thinks you deserve a snack,” “Jetting loves you,” and “Jetting thanks you for not flying.”
Maybe they should add, “Jetting wants you on the no-fly list,” “Jetting hates cameras” and “Jetting thinks your too nosy.”
Feh.
Oops…”Jetting thinks you’re too nosy.”
Feh on me. XD
@:
Very good points@
They told the lady it is illegal to record video inside an airplane. The I have to ask the million dollars question: How come the journalists can shoot videos inside Air Force one when the President is inside? What about the recordings we all have seen of McCain speaking to reporters inside his airplane?
Would a camera with no electronics be ok? Say, an old super-8 type camera with a crank instead of an electric motor? I can just picture being arrested for refusing to “delete” the footage…
Would somebody *please* give that Grandma a hammer!?!
@ceejeemcbeegee: The dispute was the deletion of the video, the use of the video recorder was trivial.
I’m on the Grandma’s side on this one. But, she’s not just a “grandma” She’s a professional photographer who knows just a little bit about the PR industry (her husband owned a very influential PR agency in Atlanta). She’s also a former Mrs. Georgia who was featured in Playboy years ago (much, much prettier than almost any centerfold). My guess is that she saw an opportunity – and ran with it.
I have no idea how my husband and I are ever going to visit Europe when we both refuse to fly. Every time we read another out-of-control-airline story it just confirms that flying is totally ridiculous and getting worse by the minute. Airlines are totally free to get away with bullying people, with the help of our own government under the BS terrorist cover. Why weren’t the airlines on top of security for the guys who crashed the planes into the Twin Towers? No, those guys they let through. People it’s time to protest big time.
Isn’t the plane property of JetBlue thus making it private property? I record a lot of videos too so I feel for gramma but she has to realize that her age and whether or not she said she planned to use it for personal reasons do not matter.
If they don’t want people filming on/in their property and any altercations that occur therein then they have every right to tell her that and stop her from filming. Same with restaurants, shopping malls and museums – they usually have a “no film” policy and it doesn’t matter if you’re 56 or 16 – they will enforce it. Not to sound like a total jerk but how many would be saying “Oh the poor thing!” if this tale were about a 16 year old boy?
Yeah, it was a bit terse the way they handled it and they could have been a little nicer overall, there was no need of the accusations and attitude, but still – its their right.
We pay for the privilege of the service, using their machine for personal transport, we do not have an inherent right to fly and to disregard the rules of public vs. private property.
@Mollyg: I think suing for false arrest is pretty serious. I read one of the accompanying articles where she describes being pushed down a flight of stairs, accused of being drunk, and being told she had no right to speak. Sickening. Absolutely sickening.
@AdvocatesDevil: You’re right that they are not cops and don’t have the right to demand things of us like that… but they are more than glorified waitresses. They do get trained in emergency management, and I respect that. But this has nothing to do with emergency management, just the ol’ CYA trick.
@Michael Belisle: Because grandmother is shorthand for describing an older and presumably more frail person. We all have had grandmothers, biologically at least, so that should be easier to relate to than saying, “55 year old arrested” — for all we know, the 55 year old could be Hulk Hogan.
Anyway, I disagree that the wording by the report is the most important thing here: the fact that they bullied and threatened her, and illegally threw her off a plane and that a male cop bullied a woman who was older, smaller and weaker than him is what counts.
People get bitter and downright uncivilized if you catch them on film when they’re not their best.
This actually reminds me of a squabble I had with my university’s student housing staff after I started recording kids who repeatedly vandalized my dorm room door. Campus police were more than happy to have evidence to work with, but the housing staff told me the students’ parents threatened to sue because they were afraid that the footage would wind up on Youtube.
In the end I was getting bullied by both the students /and/ the staff. I’m glad to have it behind me.