Ever since air travel has started to increase again, the airlines have had a lot of problems with passengers who refuse to listen to flight attendants. In fact, the FAA has received over 3,700 reports of unruly passengers since January.
The U.S. isn’t the only country with such disruptive flyers – other countries have them, too. We just have significantly more ;-).
In the U.K., the Civil Aviation Authority is the equivalent of the F.A.A. and they have their own rules about disruptive passengers. However on an EasyJet flight not long ago, there was a huge question of whether 2 passengers were being disruptive or the flight attendants just overreacted to said passengers’ response to a request.
The flight was from London’s Gatwick Airport to Malaga, Spain. Two Black young men, who were sitting in an exit row, had taken off their shoes. During taxing, the FAs told them that because of what row they were in, they needed to put their shoes back on, in the event of an emergency.
The two guys “huffed,” which started the following:
- The flight attendants decided they were being “disobedient”
- The plane, which was about to take off, was sent back to the gate
- The police were called to remove the two “unruly passengers”
- The other passengers started a mutiny, saying the guys were in no way rude or abusive. All they had done was simply “huff” when asked to put their shoes back on
Take a look:
@easyJet attempting to remove 2 black boys from the flight for huffing at a member of the crew ! Absolutely disgusting. We’ve been delayed 2 hours and counting! Police on board @Gatwick_Airport #gatwick #lgw @SurreyPolice @TheSun #Easyjet pic.twitter.com/hkC3Aa4rb4
— LG (@LPGLDN) August 5, 2021
As per LG:
After all the backlash and objections from the entire flight, except for that one member of cabin crew, they gave in and allowed them to stay on board. The cabin crew were swapped over. 3 hour delay. Shambles.
— LG (@LPGLDN) August 5, 2021
As LG said, it was eventually determined that the guys could stay on the flight, but a replacement crew would have to come on board so the original crew didn’t work for too long. That added to the plane’s delay, but they eventually took off.
Several passengers made sure to complain to the airline about the incident.
From EasyJet:
“The primary responsibility of our crew is for the safety of everyone onboard.
“An issue arose onboard the flight during taxi, the aircraft returned to stand and was met by airport police to resolve the issue before safely departing with all passengers onboard.
“Our crew must ensure that safety requirements are followed by all passengers and as part of their role must check prior to take-off that everyone is compliant with these.
“This is particularly important for passengers seated in emergency exits rows where crew ensure there are no loose items during take-off.
“We are aware of the feedback from some customers onboard on how this was handled.
“We take feedback of this nature seriously and have been in touch with them to discuss their experience and assure them that we will review this internally.
“The safety and well being of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”
Feature Photo: Pxfuel
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
