Very interesting article.If indeed their behavior was "playful" the crew and their airline behaved very badly.BUT Aviation has changed and passengers must know and accept this.Pre 911,customer service had been on a downward slope for about 15 years.Post 911,if you ask too many questions or look at somebody the wrong way,you'll be carted off.
Flight attendants are much older stateside and knowing how to difffuse a situation with a smile or an ironic putdown is an art.Some FA's hate the job and hate the folks and it shows.If she was truly nineteen and was the lead FA,then something is wrong and it needs to be invetsigated perhaps by the CAA.
Someone said as an FO,they had zero tolerance of passengers.Should be the other way round.Once upon a time,the crew always accomodated the passengers.A " good day sir" when boarding,a smile,help with luggage,friendly and polite when serving food and drinks.But now,thats all gone.I still see a bit of it in Southwest and airlines like Singapore and Thai have nice service but you have to pay through the teeth for it.Maybe its the gene pool or this generation X. WWI diluted your gene pool considerably and we've got radicals and slackers to contend with.