"Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures"

[ElPaso Pilot]

This pic:

+ a "legacy" flight attendant

And this blogger

= da' boot.

http://upgrd.com/matthew/thrown-off-a-united-airlines-flight-for-taking-pictures.html

 

[Jim Logajan]

I had no idea that United Airlines had a "no video or picture taking" rule. And no idea they buried such contractual obligations in a magazine that may or may not always be in the seat pocket. (And when it is, half the time the crossword puzzle has already been attempted and their stories are lame, so I end up putting it back without looking much further.)

How hard is it for flight attendants to say that something is against company rules rather than invent bogus claims about it being a federal offense?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Because failure to follow crew-member instructions is a federal offense.

I'm not aware of any statute that makes that a federal offense. Please help me out by providing the appropriate statute. The only statute I'm aware of is "49 USC § 46504 - Interference with flight crew members and attendants" - and it does not mention anything about following crew-member instructions.

 

[Jim Logajan]

What kind of idiot uses the t-word with an FA trying to get him to comply with her instruction? He broke the rule, she corrected him, and walked away. Then he wants to waste her time during the boarding process to explain that he is NOT a terrorist. And this guy is a pro?

The "this guy is a pro?" rhetoric is OK so long as it isn't applied selectively. But that is what you did. Why did you decide not to apply your rhetorical question "this guy is a pro?" to the FA and render a verdict? As far as she knew, he was just a normal passenger oblivious to the rules. You have to engage in considerable special pleading to demand passengers act professional (though they are really customers) while allowing crew members to act petty or without a lick of common sense.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Don't know about any U.S. federal offense, but the Brits have a rule that requires obeying directions from flight crews:

Any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any direction given to him under any provision of this Order or any regulations made thereunder shall be deemed for the purposes of this Order to have contravened that provision.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/3468/article/132/made

"contravening a provision" means that one is guilty of an offense and subject to fine, according to another paragraph in that law.

The "given to him under any provision of this Order or any regulations made thereunder" clause is very important - I believe it limits the validity of the rule only to directions that the flight crew is itself obligated by law to follow or apply. But airline created rules that were not written in order to comply with any law would presumably be excluded by that clause. So if a passenger fails to comply to an order given under such a rule, then that would make failure to comply a contractual matter between the customer and the airline. Not an offense against UK regs.

An example would be an airline rule against, say, bringing your own food on board. Or any other rule the airline dreams up. It seems unlikely the law could be interpreted to make their violation a criminal one.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Arguing with an FA is always a losing proposition.

I learn so many new laws of the universe from online forums.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I read the article, I read the comments, they do not support your statement.

It does not matter whether he continued to take pictures. What matters is that he became argumentative and used the T-word, he admits that fact in his own article. Once you go there, there is no way back (just as you could never 'joke' about bombs in the post 1993 environment).

No person should be allowed to get away with such a blatant disregard for context. Discarding context when determining the meaning of words should not even be argued as regrettably acceptable. A great deal of harm is done by accepting such nonsense as something we all must learn to accept and stop whining about. So I don't appreciate statements and claims that overlook the FA's duty to act responsibly and rationally.

Unfortunately you and a lot of people now have that irrational meme imbedded in their thinking; from an NBC correspondent:

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/unite...king-photo-making-terrorist-comment-1C8455938

"Other passengers on that United flight 904 corroborated Klint's story."
...
"Klint insists he followed the flight attendant’s instructions and was not uncooperative in any way. He acknowledges, however, "perhaps I should not have used the term ‘terrorist.'""