This stunt has been tried time and again over the years with mixed results. I know a pilot who got a month off a few years ago for bumping management and the feds didn't overrule the decision. Of course, if the Hawaiian captain was really too mad to let the trustee on the aircraft, maybe he shouldn't be flying at all until he calms down.
>>"A CAPTAIN IS IN CHARGE OF HIS OR HER SHIP" (emphasis mine), FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the Honolulu Advertiser. "It's the captain's place to decide who does or does not fly on his or her plane."<<
In the politically correct real world of American aviation that depends. Several cases of bumping pax post 9-11 for alleged security reasons have been turned into a racial profiling claim so you really have to be careful.
Delta and other airlines have settled with the DOT and agreed to spend more on diversity training so that people who have the same perceived ethnicity as alleged terrorists are not discriminated against:
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Delta settles civil rights complaint
Staff report
Published on: 06/22/04
Delta Air Lines agreed to spend $900,000 for civil rights training of workers after U.S. regulators found the carrier improperly kept off flights some travelers perceived as Arab, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian or Muslim.
The settlement is the fourth by a U.S. airline regarding passenger treatment after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Transportation Department said. Atlanta-based Delta must spend the money within two years for training of pilots, flight attendants and customer-service agents.
"Some passengers were denied boarding or removed from flights" because of their ethnicity, the department's consent order said, without saying how many. Since November, the Transportation Department has announced settlements with American and United for $1.5 million each in training and with Continental for $500,000.
Delta, the third-largest U.S. airline, said it didn't discriminate and "strenuously denies" it violated federal law, according to the department's order. "Delta is already firmly committed to the objectives of the civil rights laws," Peggy Estes, an airline spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.
The airline told the department that its employees involved in the incidents acted out of safety and security concerns, not because of the passengers' race, color, national origin or religion, according to the consent order.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/busi...complaint.html