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Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

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Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#141

Post by Osmium »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #88
hermannj314 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, as a guy that only flies coach I thought "hanging your coat" means putting it on the little peg that pops out on the back of the seat in front of you / putting it in the overhead bin. I was mistaken. I didn't realize coats at the front of the plane were treated so much better than the rest of the coats. :-)

Everything is better at the front of the aircraft (except the toilets for some inexplicable reason).

And your chance of survival in case of an accident:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4...

Which is funny, really, because it makes you think people would pay extra to sit in the back...

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#142

Post by shock »

andrewfelix wrote: post #82
pudquick wrote: post #62

Yes, it's unfortunate that the flight attendant lied in this situation. However, it would have been impossible for the pilot to verify this - even if the author showed him the camera. Since the author was willing to 'prove' it, it had to be a digital camera - which the author could have very easily used the built-in delete function to remove all photos but one (or be a sneaky terrorist and swap SD cards). In addition…

Absolutely agree. The guy acted arrogant and entitled and attempted to argue with the Captain. There was a very simple solution to this situation; Suck it up, swallow your pride and apologise, whether you were in the wrong or not. If he had been humble about it, he very likely would have been able to stay on the flight.

Why is arguing politely such a bad thing? How do you see society evolving if everyone just does what someone else tells them to?

> There was a very simple solution to this situation; Suck it up, swallow your pride and apologise, whether you were in the wrong or not.

And watch your self esteem plummet. Do that repeatedly and your self esteem would be in the negatives :)

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#144

Post by redmondbarry »

Meh. Passenger demonstrates willingness to a) revisit the incident later and b) use the word 'terrorist' on the plane.

They don't have to actually think he'll blow up the plane; it only takes one closet nut case to overhear this and cause a ruckus mid flight. In a small confined space at 30k feet that's a very real safety issue. Consider that an irrational fear of flying isn't that uncommon, and this is a route where there isn't much of an alternative.

Finally, they're under no obligation to tell a passenger the real reason for booting him off the plane; if it was the above, doing so could only make it worse for themselves.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#145

Post by lusr »

chc wrote: post #103
PavlovsCat wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing civilized about failing to point out that the claim "he took more pictures" is a lie. There is nothing civilized about abuse of power. There is nothing civilized in accepting it. But the real WTF is: how would agreeing to be led off the plane have resulted in him staying on it? His fate was sealed when he explained his picture to the FA and she had a 'nam flashback, or whatever the fuck caused this;…

> There is nothing civilized about failing to point out that the claim "he took more pictures" is a lie. Was it? Or did she misunderstand his need to justify himself as a way of indicating that he did not intend to stop? You assume she lied -- probably because that's what you are most comfortable believing -- but it's not necessarily true. People make false claims all the time that they really, genuinely believe to b…

Perhaps this is just my opinion, but if you make a statement that you don't know to be true and assert it as a true statement, you have lied.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#146

Post by PavlovsCat »

xyzzy123 wrote: post #127
PavlovsCat wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing civilized about failing to point out that the claim "he took more pictures" is a lie. There is nothing civilized about abuse of power. There is nothing civilized in accepting it. But the real WTF is: how would agreeing to be led off the plane have resulted in him staying on it? His fate was sealed when he explained his picture to the FA and she had a 'nam flashback, or whatever the fuck caused this;…

I think the best you could do under the circumstances would be to apologise for taking pictures and explain that the FA was mistaken. If they want to kick you off at that point you have to put up with it. But DoubleCluster is right. Accusing the FA of lying just displays a huge lack of social awareness. It's also not factual - the OP doesn't really know whether the FA made a mistake or not. If you flat-out accuse the…

If you flat-out accuse the flight attendant of lying, you're going to trigger an "us versus them" situation with the flight staff.

That was already triggered by the FA's clandestine response to the traveller's openness, and the COMMAND to leave the plane. To blame this on the passenger is very comfortable and very cowardly IMO. "she lied", "that's not true".. those are the same thing when it comes to what this actually was about. He wasn't escorted off the plane for hurting the ego of staff by failing to be intimidated; it was about wether he took pictures after having being asked to stop, at least allegedly.

And yes, the captain has to decide wether his staff is comfortable with passengers, and more importantly, wether that is the fault of said passengers or said staff. If it's the passenger, kick them out, if it's the staff, likewise. In that sense I totally agree, but someone who can't even make eye contact is not up to this; so it's up to the airline weither they feel comfortable having weak staff on board of expensive equipment.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#147

Post by UweSchmidt »

rurounijones wrote: post #75
pudquick wrote: post #62

Yes, it's unfortunate that the flight attendant lied in this situation. However, it would have been impossible for the pilot to verify this - even if the author showed him the camera. Since the author was willing to 'prove' it, it had to be a digital camera - which the author could have very easily used the built-in delete function to remove all photos but one (or be a sneaky terrorist and swap SD cards). In addition…

"You were not kicked off for taking pictures. You were kicked off for acting odd." Not even odd, slightly odd which is now apparently grounds for getting kicked off an airliner. The terrorists have won a great victory if acting slightly odd is enough to terrify an airline company into kicking a passenger off a plane.

"The terrorists have won if [something silly happens in America]"

Not really.

It is political and military pressure on certain countries with high birth rates and weak economies that radicalizes young men - lift the foot from their neck and see them be as indifferent/slightly dismissive towards our lifestyle/religion like we are to theirs.

Airport/aircraft security seems to be part of a trend of law enforcement in the US: harsh punishments for minor crimes, "tough on crime", zero tolerance etc.

Sorry if I missed some sarcasm.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#148

Post by davewasthere »

I wish the flight attendants had of asked the guys next to me in Business to stop taking photos. A few of us had been upgraded and these guys next to me were so excited they took about 80 or so photos. Every. Single. One. With. The. Fucking. Flash.

Okay, I was a little annoyed. But the attendants weren't bothered... and the guys did settle after a while.

It wasn't anything to do with photo taking. You _don't_ say on a plane, "I'm not a terrorist". That's kind of dumb.

That said, he was perfectly entitled to take photos for personal use. So the photo taking wasn't really an issue.

There's more to this than the OPs mentioning perhaps.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#149

Post by jimzvz »

pudquick wrote: post #91
frinxor wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a flight attendant tells you to not take pictures, its obviously for security/terrorism concerns. I find it truly ridiculous if we can no longer make true statements in an attempt to alleviate such fear ("I am not a terrorist"). When a cop pulls you over because there was a kidnapping a year ago, you do not end up in jail for making the claim "Don't worry, I'm not a kidnapper"

> When a cop pulls you over because there was a kidnapping a year ago, you do not end up in jail for making the claim "Don't worry, I'm not a kidnapper" No, but you'll get a more thorough check of your car (trunk and backseat), plus a more in-depth check of your car's plates and your ID - because you just made a seemingly unrelated statement about a horrible thing (kidnapping) when the cop pulled you over for somethi…

>...you'll get a more thorough check of your car (trunk and backseat), plus a more in-depth check of your car's plates and your ID - because you just made a seemingly unrelated statement about a horrible thing (kidnapping) when the cop pulled you over for something trivial (not obeying speed rules).

Not in a normal society.

Re: Thrown Off a United Airlines Flight for Taking Pictures

#150

Post by mmorett »

gokhan wrote: post #137
pudquick wrote: post #62

Yes, it's unfortunate that the flight attendant lied in this situation. However, it would have been impossible for the pilot to verify this - even if the author showed him the camera. Since the author was willing to 'prove' it, it had to be a digital camera - which the author could have very easily used the built-in delete function to remove all photos but one (or be a sneaky terrorist and swap SD cards). In addition…

They could easily verify him. He "accrued nearly 950,000 lifetime flight miles with United" and had been upgraded to business class. You normally don't kick customers out because they take pictures of the seats, this is BS, staff could invent lots of ways to ease this situation if they wanted to, but post 9/11 defacto standard for flight personnel is they can do this kind of silly things and get away with it in the n…

Yes. Or the FA could have handled it with a bit more tact. Like this United agent, for example: http://asiangotswog.tumblr.com/post/43637405031/lolsofunny-a...
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