I wish to call to your attention a matter of such shockingly inappropriate and unprofessional behavior on the part of an American Eagle flight attendant that it left me, surrounding passengers, airport security, local law enforcement officials, and even other American Eagle employees in disbelief. Briefly, while taxiing from the gate at Richmond International Airport on flight 3697 (March 28, 2011), my fiancee reminded me that I had forgotten to turn off my cell phone. In an attempt to comply with the regulations, I retrieved the device from my briefcase and initiated the shut down procedure.
At that time, the flight attendant, Ms. Sheila **, approached from behind and barked, "That needs to be off now!" (I note as a point of emphasis that a rather more professional and courteous reminder like, "Excuse me sir, but all electronic devices must be shut down prior to departure" might have sufficed). Stunned by her unprofessional and accusatory tone, I attempted to inform her that I had already initiated the procedure and was waiting for the device to power down. However, I was unable to complete the sentence before she snapped, "I don't want to hear it! Turn it off now! I made an announcement. You should have been paying attention!"
Recognizing that verbal communication was apparently futile, I turned the device around to show her the spinning clock (indicating that the program was shutting down). Unfortunately, her aggressive and erratic behavior continued unabated. She responded, "It should have been off already! I made an announcement. Turn it off now!" Frustrated by her irrational behavior and unprovoked aggression, and conceding the evident futility of all attempts at rational discourse, I shrugged my shoulders and responded, "Aye aye, captain."
I must confess that I was theretofore unaware of the fact that the word "captain" is a pejorative and threatening term. Apparently, however, it was deemed to be so to Ms. **, who immediately declared, "That's it; you're off." She then marched to the front of the cabin and informed the captain that he needed to taxi back to the gate to remove a passenger (I trust that you wont fail to recognize the irony in the fact that I could have simply ignored the regulation and left the device on in my briefcase and avoided the condescending grammar school admonishment for, "of all things," attempting to actually comply with the regulation)!
Lest you're tempted to conclude that I am either a non-compliant passenger who was refusing to discontinue use of an electronic device or perhaps simply a humiliated passenger who is trying to mitigate any culpability in the incident, I implore you to consider the following:
1) Both cellphone records and the device history will indicate that there were no incoming nor outgoing calls on the device within the preceding 24 hours and no attempts to access the Internet or email within three hours prior to the incident. Additionally, no other program, including music, calendar, camera, or voicemail had been accessed within days of the incident. It is therefore clear and irrefutably demonstrable that contrary to Ms. **'s accusation, I was emphatically not using the device at the time of departure.
2) Upon returning to the gate, my fiancee and I were greeted by three local law enforcement officers who, upon hearing the details of the incident informed us that there was clearly no violation on our part and that the flight attendant's actions were both inappropriate and unnecessary. Indeed, when providing a status report to her supervisor, one officer stated that both passengers were fully compliant, cooperative, reasonable, and polite. Moreover, she indicated that there was no evidence to suggest that we were acting in a manner that warranted removal from the flight.
3) Upon learning the details of the incident, all three American Eagle gate employees were profoundly and profusely apologetic to us and offered every means of accommodation in order to assist us with making alternative arrangements. Moreover, the compliance officer, Mr. Tyler **, confirmed that Ms. **'s actions were inexplicable, unwarranted and, in his experience, unprecedented.
Importantly, in a statement that sheds considerable light on Ms. **'s state of mind at the time of the incident, the baggage handler informed the gate personnel and the police officer who was still present at the time that Ms. ** was on the war path from the moment she arrived that morning and was going off on everyone before the passengers began boarding (we were unable to record this employee's name before he departed, though I trust his identity can be obtained through the duty log and service records).
4) As the incident unfolded, several passengers expressed incredulity at Ms. **'s irrational and erratic behavior (indeed, one passenger in front of us turned around and asked us if she was drunk). The speed with which the incident took place precluded us from collecting contact information from surrounding passengers.
However, I encourage you to refer to the manifest and contact the passengers in the surrounding seats (we were seated in 12B and 12C) for further statements and testimony. I hasten to add that the surrounding passengers will confirm that we remained calm and that at no point during the exchange did we raise our voices, use profanity, or refuse to comply (indeed, my fiancee even attempted to diffuse Ms. **'s aggression by politely apologizing to her for any apparent miscommunication and explaining that the device takes several seconds to power down).
5) Both local law enforcement officers and American Eagle personnel provided contact information and invited us to direct any investigating authority to contact them for confirmation of the details surrounding the incident. Accordingly, I have listed below the relevant contact information for both the American Eagle compliance coordinator and the officer in charge of the investigation.
As a 20-year member of the American Advantage program who has logged several hundred thousand miles on American Airlines flights, I am shocked and profoundly offended by the manner in which I was treated by Ms. **. Her erratic and irrational behavior was highly unprofessional, discourteous, and disrespectful. Moreover, her aggression was unprovoked and her actions were entirely without justification.
Finally, as a pilot myself, I am quite well aware of the circumstances that would justify returning an aircraft to the gate following a clearance to taxi--since nothing that took place during the above referenced exchange would be regarded by any reasonable and responsible pilot as sufficient justification for aborting a departure. It is clear that Ms. ** issued a false statement to the pilot in command of a commercial aircraft and falsely accused me of violating a federal aviation regulation when she contacted the pilot and requested that he return to the gate.
In so doing, she violated both federal law and my legal rights (this is a matter that will be adjudicated in due course in the appropriate legal jurisdiction). Her decision to remove a passenger without any reasonable justification and based on nothing more than the fact that she was apparently having a bad day is an egregious abuse of her very limited and narrowly-defined authority. Importantly, her behavior provides substantial evidence to suspect that Ms. ** is either psychologically unstable, poorly trained (recall that her job is to diffuse potential conflicts, not provoke them!), or, "even worse," working while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Based on these facts, her actions warrant immediate termination.
In light of the foregoing, I herewith demand that you take the following actions: 1) Initiate a full and complete investigation of the above referenced incident and provide full and complete documentation of the findings and conclusions, as well as the subsequent punitive actions taken in order to achieve a satisfactory resolution of the grievance. 2) Cancel my American Advantage account (account number **), donate any remaining miles to a qualified charity, and cease and desist from any subsequent correspondence, except for that which is specifically related to this grievance and the resolution thereof.
3) Issue a full refund for all charges related to the original itinerary as well as those related to the alternative flights necessitated by Ms. **'s unjustified actions (as documented in the forms and receipts attached hereto). 4) Finally, I request that you submit a copy of the original incident report no later than seven days from receipt of this letter. In conclusion, please know that I am under no illusions about the cavalier and disinterested manner with which you will receive this letter nor the speed with which you will inevitably delegate responsibility for issuing a reply (if my experience with American/American Eagle over the last several months is any barometer, I suspect you've become rather well accustomed to and efficient at handling complaints from aggrieved customers). Nonetheless, please be advised that I will employ the full spectrum of considerable resources at my disposal to compel you to comply with the demands enumerated above and ensure an expeditious and satisfactory resolution of this grievance.
Follow Up: I received a letter from American Airlines Customer Service two weeks after submitting the complaint. They responded to my accusation that the flight attended issued a false statement to the pilot in command of a commercial aircraft and falsely accused me of violating FAA regulations by reviewing the flight attendant's statement and concluding that I had violated policy (Huh?).
They refused to review the police report, consider witness statements, and dismissed the statements of their own American Eagle employees who indicated that the flight attendant's actions were unwarranted, inappropriate, and in their collective experience, unprecedented (the airline claims that these statements were without merit because these employees didn't necessarily see everything that happened).
To add insult to injury, the airline declined to issue a refund for the flight, despite the fact that the American Eagle Compliance Officer on site informed us that our money would be refunded, provided the appropriate forms and receipts, and walked us through the process of obtaining the refund.
