Low cost carrier Ryanair can’t get any love these days. Europe’s original budget airline has gotten tons of press lately. Unfortunately, most of it has been bad. Of course, maybe there are people out there who want to fly an airline with surly flight attendants, lots of noise, and trashy ad campaigns. It could be kind of an adventure.
But when things go to court, the fun and games must cease. BAA (British Airports Authority) is suing Ryanair for unpaid airport fees accrued when the company refused to pay higher landing fees at Stansted Airport.
To Ryanair’s credit, at least they followed up their talk with action. They have been complaining about the higher fees and they haven’t paid them. When the airline’s outspoken chief, Michael O’ Leary, used expletives to describe BAA’s execs, the press ate it up. However, his (winning) personality might not fly in court.
Is this the beginning of the downward spiral for Ryanair? Abrasive behavior will only get you so far. It might be time for O’ Leary and his posse to start making some friends lest they end up with nowhere to land their planes.
Watching the video of Robin Kassner being arrested while her bag is getting checked at the Reagan International Airport certainly gives one the impression that being arrested is not relaxing.
The incident happened in February 2007. She’s tussled up a bit by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. That part is clear.
What isn’t clear is exactly what happened.
According to this news story from Kare 11 that includes the video, Kassner is suing because she believes she was wronged, although the charge of disorderly conduct has been dropped. The charge that she was obstructing justice still stands.
Kassner claims she was being cooperative when officer Michael Urbina reached over and grabbed her to throw her into a chair. Does he have some sort of tick then? After the chair, she was pushed over the TSA counter, face down and then onto the floor.
From the video footage, before Urbina grabbed her, it looks like she’s pretty close to the screener and talking–not particularly animated, but too close.
TSA says that the video doesn’t tell all and that Kassner was not minding. She was getting in the way. Kassner says that she was roughed up for no fault of her own, thought she would die, and was put in jail to think about why she wasn’t on board the flight that she would have been on if she had behaved herself. Jail time is like being sent to the principal’s office in this case.
Check out the video of the incident below. What do you think happened?
Regardless of who is telling the truth, for folks who are quick to get mad, the TSA screening area isn’t the place to let emotions get the best of you. Easier said than done, but important to keep in mind before you ever slip off your shoes.
I don’t get mad easily, but last summer, I found myself halfway arguing over a small, still in its package wine kit that I didn’t know had been left my husband’s carry on. I didn’t even know that there could be a knife attached to the corkscrew. As irate as I was about the situation, the TSA person felt sympathetic, tried to help me find a solution, and I let it go. I was surprised my emotions were triggered.
As ridiculous as the TSA rules may seem at times, or how much you love the items you’ve been told to leave behind, or where you’ve been told to stand, there’s really no point in arguing. The person in uniform hasn’t made the rules, but they have a job that can’t be all that much fun. Keep your distance, keep your mouth shut, and it will be over. You’ll at least be on a plane.
Unfortunately, keeping calm when traveling isn’t easy when the trip has snafus, and I know several people who, when grabbed, will fight back. Fight or flight. It’s an instinct that can cost you.
Let’s hear it for the Naked Cowboy. There are new details since I posted about his lawsuit against Mars Inc., the maker of M&Ms. Although some of his claim against the company has been thrown out, the judge has ruled that the lawsuit can move forward.
A jury will decide if the Naked Cowboy can collect any money from the Mars Inc. for dressing a Blue M&M up to look like the Naked Cowboy and using the image in an ad campaign. The idea behind this lawsuit is that the Naked Cowboy has created a persona and should have been paid for the use of the image since the ad implies that the Naked Cowboy endorses Blue M&Ms.
The Naked Cowboy (aka Robert Burck) is a guy that dresses in nothing but underwear, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat while he plays the guitar in New York City’s Times Square. He’s a fixture. A couple years ago, I saw him when we were passing by in a taxi. You can’t miss him. He braves all kinds of weather.
Personally, I think that the Naked Cowboy has a point. He is a well-known figure in Manhattan and adds to Times Square’s personality. Also, he has appeared as the Naked Cowboy in various other venues.
Mars Inc. claims that the company is using the Naked Cowboy image as a parody. Huh? Isn’t that Blue M&M dressed like the Naked Cowboy? [see article] I still think the Naked Cowboy has a point. I’d say he better not be caught eating any blue M&Ms though.
This morning, Jeffrey wrote a post about Carol Anne Gotbaum’s family suing the city of Phoenix for her death. Right after she accidentally strangled herself with her handcuffs while she was in police custody at the Phoenix Sky International Airport, I wrote about it. Her mental illness and desperation, plus the heightened security at airports, and the anxiety that goes with air travel made for a bad combo. Regardless of whether procedures were followed or not, I wonder what the procedures are exactly? If one goes off ones rocker, one hopes for a better result.
In the movie, “Meet the Savages,” there’s a brief scene when Laura Linney’s character is helping her father who has dementia make it to the bathroom of an airplane when flying with him back to New York from where he was living in Arizona. His pants fall down while he is standing in the aisle. No one reacts. What if someone had become irate? A small scene could have become a big one.
I was just in the Phoenix airport two weeks ago Friday dashing with a group of thirty to catch a plane since our Southwest flight was almost two hours delayed. The jaunt between the two gates was a goodly amount and I had the task of keeping track of the five people assigned to me. Everyone in my group was sane and not drinking and kept checking to make sure we were all accounted for. I can’t imagine navigating an airport of that size if under duress.
I feel bad for both sides and it’s unfortunate Gotbaum isn’t around to explain what was going on in her head that day. As a person who has worked with people with mental illness, when I watched the tape back when I wrote a previous post, I did think, “Oh boy. What an unfortunate mess.”
Perhaps you’ve been at Times Square in New York City and noticed a guy wearing brief style underwear (often white), a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and playing a guitar. I saw him two summers ago. Actually, my daughter and her friend noticed him first. “Say what?!” was their response as they craned their necks when our taxi passed where he strummed. “That’s ‘The Naked Cowboy,'” I told them.
“The Naked Cowboy” is one of Ohio’s own. Robert Burck is from Cincinnati, once the frontier of wilder country eons before the west was won. Burck does look a bit wild and he’s taking on the makers of blue M&Ms. See, Burck has been acting the part of “The Naked Cowboy” for quite some time. His look is a trademark, so much that he has appeared in films and TV shows as “The Naked Cowboy.” A blue M&M in white underwear and a cowboy hat is now playing the guitar on two billboards in Times Square, something Burck is not too pleased about, and he’s suing Mars Inc., the company that makes M&Ms for the infraction.
For Burck, $6 million should make up for the fact that the company co-opted his look for a blue M&M without giving him any compensation. In the meantime, he keeps strumming away in all kinds of weather. Look at picture number two in the photo gallery. It’s snowing.