American Airlines Cancels Flight Due To Hostile Passengers

A flight from Florida to New York Sunday night never got off the ground. That's because after the flight crew arrived late, angry and impatient passengers got verbally agitated and hostile. Apparently it was so bad, the crew wasn't comfortable working the flight so they refused to take off. Dick Brennan has the exclusive report.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[condew]

This is why I cancelled my vacation this year. It's no fun when you begin and end the trip in airplanes and airports where you are treated like cattle. My last trip from DC to Minneapolis was a horror in both directions, hours stuck in an airplane waiting to take off and arriving 4 hours late, then nearly the same treatment on the return trip.

I am sick of traveling as if I have no rights. Security asks me to turn out my pockets so they can take whatever they like. On the airplane, they own you, starve you, nickle-and-dime you.

If airlines don't like surly passengers, then how about treating them like paying customers again.

As for me, I don't fly for pleasure anymore.

[nomoredead]

This is why I like to see ticket prices going up. Look at the class of people flying nowadays. It is disgusting. These people would be better off taking the bus with their pillows and boxes and food and children and toys and baby buggies and and and ........

[paixa3]

You must be a snob, rich, neocon. Correct?

[MajorKong]

I've known several airline pilots that have complained about the New York/Miami route having, in general, a rude group of passengers. And that was years ago.

[condew]

And what is the record of these airline pilots when it comes to arriving at the gate on time, departing on time, and landing at the destination on time? Maybe they only have themselves to blame.

[therealredstateblues]

American Airlines is the absolute worst. As a frequent business traveller I could easily exceed the 350 maximum word count on all the times AA has screwed me over. I now avoid them like the plague. A ticket on AA is a guarantee of delays, cancellations, bumping, lost baggage, missed connections. If you connect thru Chicago ORD, you may as well fuggetabout making it to your desitnation on time, if at all.

No other industry could survive with as crappy of service as the airlines provide. We really should be reinvesting in rail travel, particularly regional and high speed rail - this would be very cost and time competitve with the more fuel intensive airlines.

[sparkandy]

I think Northwest could give AA a run for their money. My daughter was flying NW and when they changed planes in DTW, they sat in the plane for an hour, before they were told to deplane, because the airline couldn't find the pilot. After a few hours in the terminal, they were told that the pilot had been found - he'd called in sick the day before. Then they reaccomodated the pax. I told her only fly AA. At least we don't lose our pilots!

[therealredstateblues]

They aren't known as NorthWORST for nuttin'.

However, even though my coworkers have NWA horror stories that equal my AA experiences I have been relatively lucky with NWA . Continental seems to give me the least grief as well. But of course its all relative - they all have varying degrees of suckiness

[sparkandy]

AA's mistake was in not communicating. You don't leave a plane full of people milling around the gate for over an hour without explanation. And I suspect the majority of the pax, while rightfully upset, behaved themselves. It was probably a small minority of 'entitled' pax who started things. I hope AA put the instigators on a no fly list and I hope they teach their personnel how to communicate. Miami is the rudest airport in the country, and it's not just AA. It's the entire airport. But AA should take the lead and teach their employees some manners, even if the rest of the personnel in the airport are a bunch of snotty Nazis.

[americanwhocares]

What a stupid comment. In you view, It is the passengers (customers) who are the cause of the problem. Get real sparkandy. (showing up 90 minutes late to work is the problem in this instance) My brother works for the airlines (for over 41 years now) and he tell me horror stories about management treatment of the employee's, no wonder they have a bad attitude, but don't blame the paying customer, you are showing your ignorance, you must be part of airline management.

[condew]

sparkandy thinks expressing your displeasure at being treated rudely is grounds to be put on a no-fly list. Remember when the no-fly list was just for suspected terrorists? Now it's for people who give late air crews the Bronks cheer. How petty and unamerican.

[MaracaKabob]

Just last week after a long flight, an AA employee almost ran over my two year old little girl with a wheel chair he was pushing because she wouldn't get out of the way. I yelled at the guy to chill and he got really mad and almost attacked my child. I felt as though I was going to have to defend my daughter by tackling this guy, but he turn away in a fit of road rage with a pushed wheel chair. Again, this guy worked for American Airlines... so my point is, it cut both ways. These people get all mad, and act like asses too. I just wish they would be more professional.

[chinacatsunflower]

were you holding her hand or was she doing that toddler thing where they weave all over the place?

[111]

No one is entitled to threaten to run into a child or any other person with a wheel chair regardless of the child's and/or parents irresponsible behavior.

[gladiatorpodolsky]

Why didn't you hold on to your child?

[americanwhocares]

Oh gladiatorpodolsky it is the parents fault for the unprofessional behavior of an employee or contractor. Brilliant republican logic, thanks for the stupidity.

[treklady]

usually the wheelchair providers in large airports are contracted out, they don't actually work for the carrier, only represent them sort of.

[dumbosrus]

i can see why so many passengers were pissed. Why can't a multi-million dollar organization get air crews to a gate on-time? This is not an isolated incident folks. Granted the passengers need to cool off, but this is the airlines fault, again, pure and simple.

Also, wasn't this Democratic Congress supposed to come up with some passengers Bill of Rights that would cover these very incidents?

Oh well, what can a passenger expect from the 9% approval crowd in D.C......................

[thereshope]

"Oh well, what can a passenger expect "

Nothing. So don't fly AA.

[ccpostman]

Hitch a ride with McCain.

I hear his wife has her very own private jet.

Rich elitists don't have to worry about the common man's problems.

Maybe you can serve cocktails to her in exchange for a ride?

[steve12]

Perhaps the flight crew's connecting flight arrived late; however, there is no excuse for American not informing passengers of what was going on nor is there an excuse for passengers verbally abusing the gate agents. They're not the ones responsible for the crew arriving late.

Our society is getting far less civil. I see it on Huffingtonpost on some postings. I'm not sure why, although I suspect talk radio, learning manners at home, and a more course culture might have something to do with it.

[condew]

Americans are used to having rights, protesting in any form is not rudeness, it is standing up for your rights.

As to a passenger's bill of rights, that's another thing that this useless "Democratic" congress found too hard; of course their heart wasn't in it.

[paixa3]

Yes, I and about 100 others got a royal screw job in Houston last week. They used the weather as an excuse that our crew was still in NEW ORLEANS after checking everyone in. The aeroplane was at the gate with a cabin crew SLEEPING on it. Eventually, the crew woke up and I guess agreed to overtime to serve the flight.

That was bizaar. After the pilots arrived we left Houston. I have never seen that before.

Peace to you today.......you are going to need it on an aeroplane.

[SanityClaus]

After experiencing horrifically rude and hostile treatment from almost every American Airlines employee I encountered at JFK I made a vow never to fly AA again.

Fortunately I live on the West Coast where we have Southwest Airlines, which manages to treat people courteously, offers frequent non-stops between key cities, maintains clean and comfortable planes and doesn't charge extra for basic necessities.

AA deserves bankruptcy.

[darthdarcy]

Most likely the flight crew was in their hotel bar before the flight ...that's why they were late...this is the cover for their not being fit to fly...

[Grannysue]

The airlines are getting what they deserve, they treat passengers like cattle, can't give you a wet cloth without charging you, the stewardess treat you like your a terrorist, and they are either delayed, or let you sit on the aircraft for hours on end without so much as a we are sorry, it use to be customers came first, now it's all about profits. Maybe if everyone stopped flying for one week they would all go out of business and have to reorganize and start treating the public humanly again.
You reap what you sow!

[yappnmutt]

if you don't know what you are suppose to get you take what they give you. if more americans acted like these passengers the country wouldn't be as messed up as it is. all they wanted was a little respect for paying the salaries of this useless crew and all they get is more disrespect. if any of them fly AA again they are fools.

[Somedaysoon]

I gave up flying a few years ago when it just got to be such an uncomfortable ordeal. The long lines, the long wait, uncomfortable seats, no leg space, grouchy employees, and vindictive security asses. And when stories like this one or recently when some security men made a woman remove her body jewelry I am sticking to my boycott. When airlines return to treating customers with respect, make more leg room, stop losing luggage as a rule, and decrease all the delays--then I will return to flying.

[vinny]

rode American today... a few minutes late for self-check in... you have to be there at 40min ahead of departure... my train to O'Hare for some reason dumped me off at Rosemont, and i had to catch a bus the rest of the way... rude American Airlines worker told me to wait in really long line with two or so ticket agents... no way i was going to get through that line in time... felt the simmering hatred for American began to roil inside - like some desparate drug addict (strung out on 'advantage miles') i told myself "never again" - and then resigned myself to another cruel day at the airport... a minute later though, a nice lady tapped me on the shoulder, took my denied slip, checked my id, went off and came back with my boarding passes... in like flynn... didnt have to wait... it was a miracle...

noticed a lot of folks traveling with more carry-on luggage than allowed... outside my airplane window, noticed some guys loading up some freight (not baggage) into the cargo hull...

[KISSman]

Maybe they would be less hostile if they weren't nickel & dimed for every single thing these days on top of getting rhe normal crappy service. The airlines suck (except for Southwest).

[steve12]

There is no excuse for abusing the workers this way. There is also no excuse for the way that some airline employees treat their customers. We seem to live in a society that excuses this kind of behavior whether it comes from the Vice President of the United States, (AKA Cheney-Sen Leahy exchange), or passengers whose flight may be running late.

[condew]

So a Bronks cheer is reason to cancel a flight and deliberately misroute all the luggage? You're not a man, your a wimp.

[LAJonathan]

I'm sure those snarky, nasty AA flight attendents LOVED to shut down the flight. Like candy, they just LOVED it, i'm sure. How bad could it have been? Really. How bad.