In our post earlier today about the 65-year-old doctor who tried to use the bathroom on a recent Southwest flight and was subsequently arrested, we noted that the airline sent him an apology letter and a $100 voucher. That seemed kind of inappropriate for the situation, right? It turns out the letter was never meant for Dr. Madduri and was sent to him by mistake. According to our reader RedwoodFlyer (Sockatume also picked up on it), the letter was actually about him and was sent to all the other passengers on the flight; he was never meant to see it.
The problem was that the person who wrote the apology letter mixed up the gender of Dr. Madduri—which led him to believe it was about the female flight attendant in question—when really he was the individual with the “bizarre behavior.” When you read it with this new understanding, it becomes clear that Southwest fully sided with the flight attendant and never meant to communicate with Dr. Madduri about the issue.
“Dear Sivaprasad Madduri: Sometimes an explanation for the reason why things happen isn’t always possible, and the bizarre behavior of the individual during your June 26 flight to Las Vegas supports this point. While I’m unable to explain the circumstances surrounding the disruption, I think it’s important to offer my heartfelt apologies for any concerns you may have had as a result of this event. Naturally, we don’t want this experience to affect your feelings about flying with us in the future, or for it to be your last recollection of traveling with our Company.
“In fact, we would consider it a privilege if you gave us another opportunity to provide you with better memories. I am confident your next trips with Southwest Airlines will be more pleasant and to prove just that, I sent a LUV Voucher to every person (except, of course, the lady who caused the disruption) who was onboard your flight.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Dr. Madduri’s arrest and the apology letter back in July, and they were able to get a slightly different story from Southwest that naturally makes the airline come off in a better light, but still leaves many questions unanswered:
Brandy King, the spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said flight attendants were required to explain the cockpit-door and front-galley regulations as part of the preflight announcements.
Yes, but many of us zone out during those announcements.
King said the flight attendant tried to explain the regulation to Madduri during the incident. The criminal complaint, filed by the FBI, makes mention of a second flight attendant who allegedly tried to explain the regulation to Madduri after he returned to his seat after his first effort to get to the lavatory. The complaint says the first flight attendant again tried to explain the regulation to Madduri when he made his second attempt. The complaint states that Madduri said, “I’m not listening to you.”
Did the FBI talk to any of the other passengers? That would settle the argument. Sadly, the FBI office in Las Vegas did not return repeated phone calls.
“Doctor now regrets pleading guilty over incident on airplane” [STLtoday via airliners.net]
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These are the rules about what MUST be said before takeoff: [rgl.faa.gov]
There is no need to announce to the passengers that they shouldn’t be up and about or moving towards the cockpit when it is unsecured.
Without judging either parties, I think it is fair to say that the flight attendants today have WAAAY too much power. In case they just don’t like someone, or their attitude, they can call the police and FBI to arrest them; while there is no evidence aside from the statement of the attendant. According to this story, there was no investigation of any kind, and the man still had to plead guilty just to get out of the system. Hmmm…remember the good old days when the government worked for the people…me neither!
Sure, it’s not nice to be an obnoxious a**hole, but it is not against the law (yet…).
@Overheal: I suck at making sarcastic comments in person. Guess I’m not that much better online either.
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Seriously though, as much as race is a taboo’ed topic here in the United States. It is still a serious issue. As much as people think that times have changed (it did) and racism have dropped dramatically, there’s still a lot of racism to go around.
Explicit, overt racism has dropped dramatically (you don’t see people saying derogatory terms outright to another person of a different race in the streets as much since the last couple of decades). I doubt anybody can deny that one.
But more covert, institutionalized racism is still out in full force. Things along the lines of these stereotypes: Middle Eastern looking people should be feared because they will try to hijack and blow up the plane. Blacks should be feared because they will rob you and beat you up. Asians should be feared at the same time because they’re good in academics and will take over our jobs. Not always true for all three of those examples. But it exists. And I strongly doubt that most of you will be able to say with a straight face that you haven’t seen that happening to another person or felt that within yourselves. I, for one, can’t either. But, at least be mindful of that.
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After reading through the story posted on the St. Louis Dispatch and assuming that the story is reasonably close to the truth (you can never get there 100% as the “truth” differs based on the POV), there was clearly a misunderstanding on both sides.
BOTH were in the wrong (Ignorance of the law isn’t carte blanche for Dr. Madduri and SW continuing to act like total assholes long after the facts are revealed does not help their case either. But overall, given Southwest’s track record with cavalier employees, I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to Dr. Madduri.
I believe that the race and the physical appearance of Dr. Madduri eventually perpetuated to this monstrous disaster. In my eyes, the fact that passengers on the plane actually congratulated the staff for dealing with this matter only adds to that belief.
@azntg:
Very well put. Something that is missing from (or only very gently implied in) a lot of these posts is the fact that Dr. Madduri is Indian. People who are ignorant, racist, what have you, look at anybody who is brown (and who doesn’t fit their stereotype of a Latino) and thinks, “terrorist.” The guy is 64 years old, fer crying out loud. If a 64 year old white physician did this, do you think he would have been arrested? No, he probably would have been treated as a cranky old man who really had to pee.
The $100 coupons to the OTHER passengers really gall me. That’s like Southwest saying, “sorry you white people had to deal with the stress of a brown man being up near the lavatories while the pilot got situated back in the cockpit.”
I just flew with Southwest over the summer and they NEVER had any mention of a person not being allowed to get up while the captain was in the restroom.
I thought Southwest was one of the last good airlines, but it seems like they’re not (I now feel that they are racist based on what I’ve heard from this and the previous post). I’ll be sure to choose competitors over Southwest now, though not United, US Airways, Delta, or American Airlines.
JetBlue, Northwest, and Continental for me!
Too bad, I liked Southwest too…
Very well put. Something that is missing from (or only very gently implied in) a lot of these posts is the fact that Dr. Madduri is Indian. People who are ignorant, racist, what have you, look at anybody who is brown (and who doesn’t fit their stereotype of a Latino) and thinks, “terrorist.” The guy is 64 years old, fer crying out loud. If a 64 year old white physician did this, do you think he would have been arrested? No, he probably would have been treated as a cranky old man who really had to pee.
The $100 coupons to the OTHER passengers really gall me. That’s like Southwest saying, “sorry you white people had to deal with the stress of a brown man being up near the lavatories while the pilot got situated back in the cockpit.”
I meant to direct my comments to azntg.
I would have shit my pants .
If there is indeed a law requiring all passengers be in their seats when a crew member is out of the cockpit, I have never heard it, and I have flown many flights on Southwest and American (over 100 flights).
Furthermore, I would think that to enforce that rule, the “fasten seat belt” sign would have to be illuminated and the cabin crew verify that no passenger is out of their seat before the officer left the cockpit.
While I was not on this flight, and apparently no other passengers have come forth to testify for or against this man, it would seem to me that a flight crew member was having a bad day and decided to take it out on someone he didn’t like.