"My" air-rager convicted!!

[flapsforty]

Just have to share this with you lot!
The air rager who attacked and beat me up over a year ago was finally processed by the Dutch courts.
All his claims were declared invalid by the judge. The fact that I put him in handcuffs was deemed justified, as was the fact that he was left thus for the rest of the 9 hour flight, without food nor drink.
He was also convicted to pay a modest sum of money, which according to the company lawyer I will never see since he claims to be poor.
(rich enough money to afford a flight to the Carribean every year though.....) :rolleyes:

Don't know all the details yet but I am so [b)hugely[/b] pleased with this outcome!!
Justice has been done and standing up to this idiot was not in vain.

:) I'm sitting here with a glass of champagne, feeling extremely chuffed! :)

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Singularly Simple Person........

[WhiteSail]

Well done!!!

Lets hope anyone else that tries it on, gets the same treatment.

[JPJ]

Well done Flaps, for standing up for yourself.

I trust that one of the Gatbash lot will give you a serious cuddle on my behalf.

[Rusty A300]

I've just poured myself and my wife a glass each; and we drink to you... CHEERS!

[Lou Scannon]

A positive result as a result of your positive action.
Well done matey!

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Lou Scannon

[HugMonster]

Congratulations, F40...! Vindicated, as we expected and hoped.

As for JPJ's suggestion, I'll do my best to be first in the queue! :)

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Breeding Per Dementia Unto Something Jolly Big, Toodle-pip

[Kaptin M]

Good news, Flaps - the (receiving of) money isn't really an important issue for you, as much as the GUILTY verdict and the money he has had to spend on legal fees.

Incidentally, were the handcuffs part of the aircraft equipment, or one of the crew's "personal accessories"? (Visions of black, leather-clad, high-heeled lady, whip in hand, telling handcuffed pax, "And if you STILL want to misbehave, this will be the next step!"

[airbourne]

Well now lads I think F40 was orignally on my team with pjdj for the gatbash so I'll have to congratulate my team member first. (Better get the early flight then!)

Well done f40! Mind you what I'd like to know how did you happen to have a pair of handcuffs with you in your posession??

[Evanelpus]

Flaps

Also very interested to hear more about the way he was restrained.

Are handcuffs standard issue to crews??

[ExSimGuy]

Flaps,

I'm afraid I can't get to the GatBash, but consider yourself hugged :) I'll be at the Royal Navy Association club tonight and I'll raise a glass for you.

Did he get any "time" in addition to the "compensation" he is supposed to pay? - I hope so.

As for the 'cuffs, Yes, I wondered about that too - perhaps I'll find out when the photos appear on the site after the GatBash ;) ;)

------------------
What goes around . . .
. . often lands better!

[TheNightOwl]

flapsforty:
I raise a glass of the amber fluid to you, CONGRATULATIONS!

[Hung start]

Flaps,

Congratulations. Job well done, and now justice has been done. I´ll raise a glass for you tonight, in the hotel bar.

In my outfit, we have plastic handcuffs, as standard equipment on the aircraft. Not issued to crewmembers, but always there when needed.

[angels]

Good for you Flaps. But when you say 'processed', I trust the lowlife will be doing some time for beating you up.
Didn't he get jailed?

[dingducky]

yay flaps!
have a drink for me girly :)

------------------
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

[flapsforty]

Dear people,
The fact that you lot actually understand what it feels like to be stuck with an air rager at level 400 over the Atlantic, makes your toasts, expressions of support and future cuddles warm the heart that little bit extra!

Kaptin M, metal handcuffs + some sets of heavy duty tie-wraps are standard equipment in all the cockpits on our fleet, and their use is always SCD.
Sorry to upset your "vision" mate. ;)

[Tinstaafl]

Really wonderful news, Flaps. Even if you don't see the money, just think how having a conviction recorded against him will affect his life.

All those forms for jobs, bank accounts, insurance etc etc that ask if you've ever held a conviction. Hopefully it will cause the b@stard no end of aggravation!

Hope you get the money though...

[Final 3 Greens]

Well done Flaps.

Air rage is unacceptable and your tenacity in seeing the incident throught to conviction is the sort of positive action that will convince miscreants to think twice before misbehaving.

I wish I could be the Gatbash to buy you a drink for helping to make the world a safer place.

[Flypuppy]

Good result! Very good to see justice being done.

Heeel veeel dikke knuffels...

[Kaptin M]

And just one more toast to you, FLAPS for following through on this one. My experience with the comparatively few cases about which we (the cockpit crew) have been informed (and I know that there are times when we don't hear about it) has been that the Airline generally tries to dissuade the crew from taking any follow-up action..."Better to have a crew member off with a black eye for a week, than to lose a customer for life!"

Was it the union who helped you hang in? Your own dogged single-mindedness? Or the other crew members?

[Now - back to visions of dominating, whip-wielding, leather strapped females. (Sad but true, we guys sometimes...sometimes....like to let the weaker sex feel important!)]

[InFinRetirement]

Excellent falps! He got what he deserved. Who cares about the money - it's him that you were after, and he just nailed!

X

[Molesworth]

Great news, FF. I work for a company that specialises in touring by air and we've had 3 'customers' recently convicted for air rage offences. Due to your efforts, and those of your fellow cabin crew who have to face these (ceases typing to compose politically correct saying) people, justice is being done, and being seen to be done. I raise my glass to you (not flying within 12 hours, you understand).
Regards, M

[Stiff Lil' Fingers]

Well done Flaps. Not only must it have taken great strength of character to face up to this guy at the time but also great courage to see this through to conclusion.

Unfortunately I can't be at the bash to buy you a drink (but I hardly think you'll be buying too many given the above!)

Klem fra
Stiff

[swashplate]

Good to hear the bugger got his just deserts!!

See you at the bash, flaps!!

[oriental bloke]

flaps 40....2 u ...well done !!!!!

i've been i the lhs now 4 9 yrs

seen the air rage thing 2x ... every time i've walked down the cabin and sorted the poof out ....nojoke ....

i will not tolerate the cabin having to put up with that **** !!!

these beautifull things ....as we know are highly trained in saving these assholes lives ....

i have no compromise for that at all !!!!

you did the right thing ...*respect*

for me ..... i just kick them off ....or knock them out later .....

brgds...

[Oleo]

Hurrah Flaps!! Good news. I am very pleased for you.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb:

"If you stand on the river bank long enough the body of your enemy will came floating past."

A pity he didn't get jail, but the victory is yours. ;)

[flapsforty]

Kaptin M. it’s good thing you’re not an inquisitive kind of person huh? ;)
But since you’re asking; here’s the story.

About 50 mins after TO from CUR a pax got bothersome. At the time I was assistant Purser on the wide bodies and as such responsible for the tourist class on this 747-300, so the male FA working in that area asked for help. Talked to the pax several times, he promised to behave each time. Things culminated during the dinner service and the FA declared an ”emergency”. I rushed to the back with the purser on my heels, him a bit slower due age and not being able to squeeze past all the food trolleys. Got there just in time to see the guypreparing to throw a punch at a young lady sitting across the aisle from him. Not wanting any of that sh!t in my tourist class, I jumped in between. This sent the guy berserk, and he started hitting me around the face. The Purser went down for the count from the shock of seeing me hit, but thank god 2 burly male pax jumped into the fray and peeled the attacker off me. Meal trays flying everywhere, people screaming, and first signs of general panic.
I shouted at the FA on the oppsosite aisle to run to the cockpit for the cuffs, ran to a phone with my head still spinning and told the captain she was on her way, pls give her the cuffs no discussion and I’ll report back asap.

Put the rager in handcuffs while he was held by the 2 blokes, and reseated him to last row. Got the FA’s going with the meal service again, scraped the Purser from the floor, figured he had an attack of hyperventilation and got him to his work station to recover under the tender ministrations of a Business class FA.
Called the cockpit, told the FO what had happened, and asked for the tie wraps to tie the ragers feet to the seat since he was trying to kick the seat row in front of him out of it’s rails. 1 of the FE’s came down with the wraps and was brave enough to dive in between the seats and fasten the ragers feet. All this under a continuous stream of invective from the rager, and with him biting and spitting and kicking.

Put a cloth with some ice cubes against my face, did a walk around and calmed the pax, told the jittery FA’s they could all cry later but please finish the meal service first and don’t be stingy with the after dinner drinks!
Checked on the Purser who was recovering nicely, switched the lights to ”night”, and asked him to go and lend his shoulder to the shaken FA’s in the back, which he did, and much better than I could have done.
Went to the cockpit where the FO, SO and 1stFE were on duty. Other lads were in their rest chairs. Was informed by the FO that he had planned to land on USA soil to offload the rager, that he had gotten permission from the comp to do so, but that the captain had vetoed this and that we regrettably would carry on to Europe as we were. Never did see the captain during the rest of the flight, but the lads in the cockpit were both kind and apologetic about the situation.

Flight pretty horrendous, what with the rager never giving up his screaming of murder threats, trying to bite everybody who had to og past him to og to the toilets and the FA’s being to scared to be in the cabin if I didn’t stand beside the rager. Arriving at home base, rager was taken off board by the local police and the comp’s security people. Iwas asked if I wanted to press charges, and even if that was the last thing I felt like doing, I figured that would be giving in to the idiots so I when the pax had disembarked, I went to the police post and filed.
That took hour and a half after which the kindly constable told me ”Lady, this is all fine and dandy but the captain of your flight does not want to press charges, so this will not lead anywhere”. This news, while not surprising after the attitude he had shown, did shock the hell out of me.
Got back to the Crew Centre, were the entire entire cabin crew, and an embarassed loooking cockpit crew minus the captain was waiting for me. Hugged & kissed the lot of them, thanked them for all the help and caught a flight home.
5 hours later at home I was still so mad about the captain’s spineless attitude that I called the crewing department and enquired if they could please get the comp’s Chief Pilot to give me phone call ASAP?
He did, I told the story, he told me he would investigate.

Got a few very kind phone calls from the FO and the FE, but not a word from the comp the next 4 days, which made me feel like sh!t. So with a face turning all the colours of the rainbow, I got behind my PC, and mailed a report of the happenings to everybody and their uncle in both the company and the FA’s union.
By the time my leave was over, I still hadn’t heard from my direct boss, but the boss of the Cabin Crew Department and the Chief Pilot had both mailed me back and said the matter would be sorted, and that the captain had ”seen the error of his ways” and had filed charges after all.

Next trip was to Japan, and with a lot of panecake on my face to cover the bruises I set off. Stilll not a word from anybody in the comp. Returned to homebase 7 days later with a 12 hours delay, got hit by lightning during approach and made two go arounds due windshear. Pax screaming again, plus a lot of puking, praying and crying.
Went to my boss next day, explained what had happened on board and asked if the cabin crew could possibly get some follow up? Someone to call them at home and ask how they were doing? Seeing how all of has thought we were gonna die and all that.

Flew home, and once again total silence from the comp. This absence of reaction from the company that had employed me for 19 years punched my lights out. I called in sick on advice of an MD friend. Good advice and I used the time to start a company wide e-mail campaign to see if I could get some farking recognition & support from somebody. (a friendly captain also sent me a link to pprune to while away the time but that’s another story :) )

The mail campaign did the trick, and for the first time in it’s history the company decided to file for compensation on behalf of a crew member.

Even if I did not and would not expect a pilot to physically assist during a fight in the cabin, it would have been nice if the captain had put on his jacket after it all was over and had showed both crew and passengers ”the flag”.
I was unlucky with the captain on this trip; 99.99% of the blokes in our company would have reacted very differently. I know that for a fact.
Looking back now, I feel that the company stood by me in the end, and even if it took some time to kick-start the whole thing, that is probably only normal for a big company.
I had 6 weeks of hassle-free sick-leave, the company shrink sorted out my scrambled head, and the captain in question got his just desserts.

I guess I am bl**dy minded, but I still love my work, even more so now that I’ve made Purser. And no creepy pax is ever again gonna scare me or beat up on anybody on my watch!

PS: Kaptin M, you did ask........ :)


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Singularly Simple Person........

[JPJ]

Not only do you tell a good story, Flaps , but every word rings true!

If English was your first language, you could pack in the flying, and join the media.

But then...why bother?

Yours ever,

JPJ

[Kulu]

Flaps,

just seen this thread, and I want to add my name to the roll call of those congratulating you. Well done for the courage at the time and the doggedness to follow through for what was right.

[Eagle18th]

Flaps - Well done!
Thanks for posting the whole story and congratulations on your courage and determination to see this incident through to the end.

[Kaptin M]

Thanks for the time to give us the whole rundown, Flaps - it certainly puts the whole scenario of what is just termed "air rage incident" (a seemingly sudden, short outburst lasting only a few minutes) into its TRUE perspective ie. one of having to deal with not ONLY the disruptive pax, but also other crew members, and more often than not, other passengers.

It's great to hear stories such as these (Reader's Digest is often a good source), where one person is able to keep his/her thought processes cognitive during critical situations (and others, perhaps not even directly involved, just lose the plot).

Again a bouquet of roses to YOU, Flaps..........and a bouquet of brickbats, and a big "thumbs down" for the captain's gutless attitude in not straightaway supporting you (and the rest of the Team members). :mad:

Thank you.

[Le Pen]

Well done flaps....
Beautiful and brave!

Love

Le Pen

[Capt Claret]

Flaps,

I was dissapointed to read your post of 6/6 (1854).

To think that someone who has so little concern for his colleagues could be the captain of something like a 747!

Well done to you.

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bottums up !

[broadreach]

Congratulations, Flaps, on all counts. First for having handled it the way you did, second for having followed through and lastly for the wonderful feeling of finally seeing that following through was really the right thing to do.

Cheers,
broadreach

[AeroBoero]

Congrats flaps , goed gedaan!

Just would be pretty if that bloke had his face on a newspaper to everyone see him.

Groeten

AB

[Trout]

So the scum didn't get a prison sentence and will not pay the compensation?
Funny how the baddies can afford to fly but never anything else! :mad:
Blacklist anyone?

[bunk exceeder]

Nice one FF. My wife had one of these, and the guy wound up in jail which is where these people belong. If the Captain concerned happens to read this, may I say that he is one sorry person and a disgrace to his profession. We are a team up there and support should flow both ways, always.

[Whirlybird]

Flaps,

Only just got around to reading this, and want to add my congratulations. And I'm glad that justice got done in the end. A hug will follow on Saturday.

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Whirly

To fly is human, to hover, divine.

[Skycop]

Flaps 4 Tea,

Very well done, you have shown a great deal of courage both during and after this awful incident.

Captain "X"? What a coward.

Hope you get over this in full. I know it will take time and hopefully our total support for your actions will help.

Best Wishes,

SkyCop