‚ÄãThe last thing passengers want to hear from a flight attendant on the PA is anything relating to crashing — even when the plane is still on the ground and there’s actually no danger of that happening. An American Airlines flight out of Dallas Fort Worth was delayed and sent back to the gate this morning when a flight attendant went rogue.
According to the Dallas Observer, passengers said the 8:25 a.m. flight headed for Chicago was back to the gate at 9:15 and police had to escort a flight attendant from the plane.
While taxiing this morning, the woman reportedly came on the PA with an announcement that they would not be taking off, and were having technical difficulties so would be heading back to the gate. Then it got strange, when another flight attendant had to come on and assure passengers that everything was fine for take off, keep your seatbelts on and away we go.
Rogue flight attendant didn’t like that and kept warning of plane crashes and flight difficulties, as passengers quote her as saying, “Captain, I am not responsible for crashing this plane.”
That freaked everyone out, ultimately leading to some passengers helping to restrain the flight attendant. Eventually the crew was replaced and the flight did take off with the original pilots, who never left the cockpit during the incident.
The Chicago Tribune says the Federal Aviation Administration confirms there was “an altercation.”
An FAA spokesman confirms that the flight “taxiied for departure then requested to return to gate C29 and be met by the Dallas Police Department. Dallas police advised the FAA that there had apparently been an altercation on the aircraft and as a result, the pilot requested to return. Dallas police, the TSA, the FAA, and American Airlines will be involved in an investigation of the incident.”
American Airlines FLight Sent Back to Gate After Flight Attendant Rants Over PA About Crashing [Dallas Observer]
American Airlines flight attendant disrupts flight en route to Chicago [Chicago Tribune]
More From Consumerist
-
Too-Tense Flight Attendant Booted From Flight For Telling Passengers To Leave Plane “If They Have The Balls”
-
Passenger Says She Was Kicked Off Plane For Being Blind; Airline Says She Seemed Drunk
-
Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Threaten To Withhold Smiles, Booze On Flights
-
Flight Attendant: If It Exists, Passengers Have Asked Me For It
-
Passenger Sues Virgin America After Contentious Soda Order Gets Him Detained At Airport
“There’s something on the wing!!”
FTFY
Apparently Consumerist didn’t like my Shatner HTML tag..
“There’s… Something… ONTHEWING”
Every. Single. Time I fly, I think of John Lithgow in the movie remake of that, yelling “THERE’S A MAN ON THE WING OF THIS PLANE!” I really was a little nervous when I had to fly in a thunderstorm once. And yes, I had a window seat. 0_0
Since were quoting twlight zone —
“JFK airpot: This is Global Airlines Flight 33, en route from London. About fifty minutes out”
“where the heck is jfk Global 33? – this is Idelwild”
She will be back on the job tomorrow after filing her American’s with Disabilities claim that it is OK for her to do because she is mentally ill…. and we cannot deny her the job because of something like that
I don’t think you understand the ADA.
Oh, I understand it fully… deal with it everyday and see the level of abuse that takes place under its name… I don’t think you understand sarcasm
No, it’s your fault. You obviously forgot the /s tag.
/s
(see?)
I know this off topic but I totally agree. A hamburger stand near where I work just closed the bathroom because it’s not ADA compliant. So now instead of some people having to adjust to a tight bathroom in a historic building, nobody get’s to go to the bathroom at all.
Such a crappy law.
You wouldn’t think so if you were the one in the wheelchair.
The ADA didn’t force the stand to close the restroom – the management decided it didn’t want to spend the money in order to serve disabled customers. Any business it loses as a result is all their fault, not the law’s.
Not quite. There was an asshole in a wheel chair a few years back in San Diego. He’d go around finding small businesses with minor violations, then demand they fix it or he’d sue them and get them shut down. I’m not talking easy fixes like add a rail to the bathroom or entrance ramp. I’m talking, add an elevator to a 2-story building that has a small craft shop upstairs. This guy was a total scumbag.
Sarcasm rarely works on the Internet.
That’s a heck of a way to resign from your job.
At least the flight attendant who deployed the slide and grabbed two beers didn’t scare anyone.
+1
Rachel you have to get off the plane, there is something wrong with the left Philange!
“This plane doesn’t have a philange…”
Exactly!
+1
Well did the damn plane land safely in Chicago or what? Way to leave one giant cliffhanger!
Most of the bodies wound up in a cornfield.
“Flight Attendant Removed From Flight For Talking About Plane Crashing Over PA System”
Police believe that alcohol, or drugs, or both may be involved.
There must be a good conspiracy theory here but I can’t figure it out yet.
“By the way, does anyone on board know how to fly a plane?”
“Ah, yes. I had the lasagna.”
Surely, you can’t be serious.
It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.
I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.
NOT Dallas police. D/FW airport has its own Public Safety Dept. made up of cross-trained police, fire and paramedics. The airport is not even in the city of Dallas and is not under DPD jurisdiction.
Thanks for saving me the trouble of pointing this out.
Upgrade from in-flight movie to live drama on the plane didn’t go as planned.
The plane could crash. They tell you that before every flight.
Man, people are paranoid.
But you rarely hear an FA get on the loudspeaker and announce the plane is going back to the gate… and the pilot and other FAs are all going “WTF? That ain’t happening”
Hey all you haters who were crucifying me over my comments regarding FAs abusing their power over on the SW nail polish page, what do have to say now? FAs are not gods and are not infallible, this is a fine example of that. This is apparently the second such incident in the last couple of weeks. A Delta FA was removed from a flight to Grand Forks for being too drunk. Maybe they’ll all receive additional training, like the TSOs who get caught molesting passengers.
“Dey see me trollin’….dey hatin’!!”
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend on the net were people are misusing the word “trolling”. Simply stating an opinion that might be contrary to the majority of others is not trolling. Perhaps you prefer to engage in discussions were you all stand around and reaffirm each other thoughts. Also, I doubt my position is in the minority, especially among frequent fliers. While rude passengers have always been a problem, rude or down right belligerent FAs were not. That is definitely a trend that got worse after 9/11.
Troll takes the bait?? My mind is blown.
I like the 9/11 reference too…I’m sure somebody’s Bingo card has that somewhere.
The article states that a first class passenger tackled the FA while they were making their rant over the PA. Couldn’t this be considered “interfering with flight crew” and expose the passenger to criminal chargers? After all, the flight crew is ALWAYS right according to posters on this site.
Odd. In every flight I’ve taken since the 60s the flight attendants have talked about the aircraft crashing and catching on fire and ditching in the water, etc and told us about crash positions and exiting after the crash if we were lucky enough to survive. The next time one of them mentions anything like that again I’m going to complain loudly.
Not her fault – she’d just learned the in-flight movie was “Jack and Jill”.
This new information turns everything around. Had she informed the rest of the flight of the true situation there would have indeed been mass chaos, not restricted to only the singular flight attendent.
Worst. Movie. Ever.
(What’s up with Al Pacino taking that role? Did he lose it all in Vegas and hard up for cash? Temporary mental illness?)
“Captain, I am not responsible for crashing this plane.”
Surely she can’t be serious.
Come to think of it, she was serious – and did it ’cause people kept calling her Shirley.
I wonder what she knew? Perhaps she had heard of a possible threat, didn’t report it, and then freaked out at the last minute.
I think it’s more likely she either drank something, took something or went loopy.
“Ladies and gentlemen, for your in flight entertainment we will be presenting Dinner Theatre minus the dinner. Also if you happen to look at the Dinner Theatre that will be a $30 viewing fee.”
There are Flight Attendants on this M’ F’ing Plane!
Coffee, tea or lithium?
Curious… what did she think was wrong? On one hand, if she honestly thought there was a life-threatening problem, what would you have done? I may have done the same thing if something had me convinced I might not live to land. However, if she was screaming about bugs under her skin, then yeah, take her away.
You wouldn’t think so if you were the one in the wheelchair.
The ADA didn’t force the stand to close the restroom – the management decided it didn’t want to spend the money in order to serve disabled customers. Any business it loses as a result is all their fault, not the law’s.
This story was covered on Jezebel too, and they say that the flight attendant was acting very confused before the plane started to move, asking passengers if they were in Houston. When people were trying to help her, she admitted to being bipolar, and so it seems that maybe she was having some sort of episode.
The article that I read said that neither federal nor local charges would be filed. You can bet that if you or I started talking about the plane crashing. etc., that charges would be filed.
Yeah, maybe so, but sources have said that she had not taken her medication. If that was your (legitimate) excuse, that you had limited control of your actions/thoughts/words due to medication problems or mental illness, you would probably be in the clear (maybe a small charge).
Hopefully she finds a nice, ground-based job somewhere.
Who knows? Maybe she’s psychic. Perhaps replacing the flight crew is what ended up saving the plane from its eventual crash!