Flight attendant loses cool on plane
Flight attendant loses cool on plane
NEW YORK (AP) — A flight attendant on a weather-delayed plane yelled at passengers and challenged them to leave the plane if they dared before he was removed and the flight was canceled.
The incident, involving American Eagle flight attendant Jose Serrano, was caught on video. Flight 4607, from LaGuardia Airport to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., was delayed for more than seven hours on Monday before being canceled.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police, who help keep the region’s major airports secure, were called to the plane, but there were no arrests.
According to some American Eagle passengers, Serrano was slurring his words while making incoherent and offensive announcements over the plane’s intercom.
Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines, which includes American Eagle, apologized for what happened. The airline said in a statement it did “not believe that the passengers’ frustrations were always met with the level of service that we expect from our people.”
But ABC News reported the airline, whose parent company is AMR Corp., also released an email from a first-class passenger who blamed the incident on “the most horrible display of passenger aggressiveness” toward Serrano.
It was unclear whether Serrano was disciplined by the airline, and it was unknown how long he’d been with American Eagle.
The company didn’t disclose his hometown or other information, so it wasn’t immediately possible to reach him for comment.
The incident recalled a similar episode in 2010 involving a JetBlue flight attendant who became unglued on a flight after it landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Steven Slater admitted he pulled the emergency chute on Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh on Aug. 9, 2010. He went on the public-address system, swore at a passenger he said treated him rudely, grabbed a beer and slid down onto the tarmac. He later said the episode “was not indicative of who I am.”