Pilots and crew brawl at 30,000 feet because of a flight attendant

by Jamie Rhein on

The wide open skies turned into the Wild West on an Air India flight when the pilots and crew started fist-fighting. The plane was heading to New Delhi from Sharjah, UAE when the altercation that had started before the plane took off heated up.

This was not a remake of the 1980’s movie Airplane, although the scenario that unfolded at 30,000 feet sounds as if it could be. Picture an Airbus A-320 bouncing around in the skies, if you will.

The fight started when one of the pilots supposedly molested one of the female flight attendants. In response to the allegation, the pilot and the co-pilot and two of the crew members threw punches in a display of fisticuffs that began in the cockpit and spilled out into the galley.

As they looked on, the 106 passengers probably wondered what the heck was going on and who exactly was flying the plane, as in should one of them offer to take control.

By the end of the incident that has subsequently grounded the four brawlers, one of the female flight attendants and one of the co-pilots did end up with bruises. There is an investigation as to what happened exactly. Sorting out who did what may not be all that difficult considering there were eyewitnesses.

I’m wondering if beverage service was disrupted. It sounds like this would have been a flight to add popcorn into the snack option. You can read more about this truth is stranger than fiction story here.

British Airways computer glitch posts super low cost flights to India

by Katie Hammel on

Late Friday night, an alert went out on Twitter. Fares to Mumbai, India, from locations all over the US were being offered at rock bottom prices on British Airways. Flights from Chicago to Mumbai were just $550 per person.

I quickly logged on to Orbitz, selected my dates, and clicked purchase. I received an email from Orbitz confirming my purchase and then got to work planning the trip. My husband was out with friends and had left his cell phone at home, so I was hoping he’d come home just tipsy enough to not mind that I’d just bought $1100 worth of plane tickets without discussing it with him first. Besides, he is accustomed to me buying plane tickets on a whim, just because they are on sale.

Luckily, he was just as excited as I was….until Saturday morning, when I received an email from Orbitz saying that due to “limited quantities”, our order could not be fulfilled. As it turns out, it’s because the fare never should have existed. Someone at BA obviously messed up (how’d you like to be that person come Monday morning?) and entered the wrong number. The fare should have been more like $1550 per person. The fat finger fare was corrected, but not before several people, myself included, had bought tickets at the faulty price.

Word on the web is that tickets bought before the error was discovered will be honored, if they were purchased on British Airways. So far it seems that those of us who used Orbitz will be out of luck. Christopher Elliott posted the story on his blog, along with a response from the company. They say British Airways didn’t honor the purchases made with Orbitz ,so people who tried to book that way will not receive tickets.

This isn’t the first time a technical error has crushed some budget traveler’s dreams. In February, Northwest refused to honor $0 fares that were “purchased” online in error. So next time you see a fare that seems to good to be true, watch out. It might not be.

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Frustrated passenger beats up airline “employee” – breaks its screen

by Scott Carmichael on

A passenger at Bismarck airport was apparently having some issues getting a Delta Airlines check-in kiosk to accept his information.

So, instead of yelling at it, like any normal frustrated passenger would do, he beat the poor thing up.

His anger caused $15,000 in damage to the kiosk, and in addition to being taken into custody and being charged with a felony, both the airport terminal authority and Delta Airlines have barred him from any contact with them.

So, let this be a lesson to anyone that thinks the check-in kiosk does not have feelings that can be hurt – that may very well be true, but beating it up will still land you in the slammer.

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Galley Gossip: Flight attendants under investigation for bomb threat

by Heather Poole on

Like I mentioned in my last post, Fly-Girls, a flight attendant docu-series airing soon, it’s rarely ever a good thing when flight attendants are in the news…

It happened a few seconds after the Captain on my flight from Miami to New York introduced himself and then asked if I had brewed a pot of coffee. I had, in fact. I always do whenever I’m working the galley. I poured him a cup and told him my name as we boarded a full flight on a 757.

After taking a sip, he whipped off his hat and hung it on a hook against the back of the cockpit door. Nonchalantly he said, “Did you hear about the bomb threat today?”

Immediately I stopped counting meals, chicken with rice and cheese tortellini, and spun around to face him. “What happened?”

“A flight attendant found a note in the lavatory. It said there was a bomb on board the flight.” And with that he was gone, too busy chatting away with a mechanic who had stepped into the cockpit.

Of course the first thing that came to mind when the pilot uttered those two oh-so-innocent words, “flight attendant”, was oh no, please don’t let it be a flight attendant who wrote the note. The next thing I thought was, I wonder if the crew was on reserve.

The only reason I suspected the crew was because something similar had happened a few years back. Even in that case, so many years ago, when I heard on the news that the flight attendant under investigation had been on reserve when she left a note in the lav, I had to laugh. Just because being on reserve does make one a little bit crazy. At times. But usually not that crazy, not bomb writing crazing of course!

When I mentioned to a friend, and lawyer, what had happened on the American Airlines flight from Boston to Miami, as well as whom I hoped the suspects would not turn out to be, he said, “Tell me, how does ‘we will get fired’ ‘we will go to prison’ get left out of the thought process before writing that kind of note?”

Good question.

Then I reminded him, as well as myself, that the flight attendants in question are innocent until proven guilty.

Two days later I am now unhappy to report that what I had prayed would not be the case seems to be kinda-sorta happening. The crew is now officially under investigation. The details are as follows…

  • A flight attendant found a message scrawled on the bathroom cabinet that read, “Bomb on board – Boston-Miami”
  • The aircraft was evacuated and luggage was searched by a bomb sniffing dog at an isolated area at Logan Airport. No bomb was found
  • FBI interrogated two crew members; a male and female flight attendant
  • Passengers were transferred to another flight and continued on to Miami

And here’s the kicker, the same two flight attendants under investigation for this bomb threat were on another flight from Miami to Boston just two weeks ago when a similar bomb threat was found. I kid you not.

Again, innocent until proven guilty.

But if these two are guilty, just how dumb are they to do it (period) on two different flights they’re crewing – two weeks apart! Do you think maybe, just maybe, they might be dating? I mean how else do two people get involved in something like this? Or do you think they’re roommates? Best friends? Or two disgruntled coworkers who just so happened to hold the same line last month? Seriously, what do you think?

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Photo courtesy of Purplemattfish

US Airways can’t have New Mexico liquor license

by Tom Johansmeyer on

US Airways sued New Mexico in 2007 because the state’s Regulation and License Department denied its liquor license application. This came after a passenger killed five people in a crash while driving drunk after getting intoxicated on the flight.

In the suit, US Airways contended that New Mexico can’t control its on-board liquor service, require training for cabin crew about alcohol or enforce any sanctions against the carrier. The airline cited the fact that federal law preempts state law. U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo, though, did not agree, ruling in favor of the state. Under this ruling, US Airways will not be permitted to serve alcohol while flying over New Mexico or while on the ground there.

New Mexico Regulation and License Department Superintendent Kelly O’Donnell calls the decision “a victory, a huge victory, for public safety,” according to the Associated Press. The airline is reviewing the decision.