Air rage goes unpunished at JAL

[A-FLOOR]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20060226TDY02004.htm
The Yomiuri Shimbun
A passenger on a Japan Airlines flight from Kagoshima Airport refused to stop e-mailing on his cell phone and assaulted a flight attendant who asked him to stop, the airline said.
The man was allowed to stay on the flight after promising to behave himself.
The departure of Friday's JAL Flight 1864 bound for Haneda Airport was delayed for about one hour.
According to JAL, the man in his 30s refused to stop e-mailing on his cell phone despite a flight attendant's repeated warnings, even after the aircraft started taxiing.
Though he finally turned off his cell phone, he went to the galley area and grabbed the flight attendant by the collar, saying: "Don't come out of here again. I hate seeing your face," and spat at her.
After being informed of the incident, the captain decided to return to the terminal. Flight attendants removed the man from the plane, but as he promised to behave, allowed him to return to his seat.
(Feb. 26, 2006)
Way to go. :mad:

[Kalium Chloride]

I predict that, despite being written by a journalist and appearing in a newspaper, there will be no outrage about inaccurate reporting and no suggestion of press exaggeration about the passenger's behaviour.




* The fact that this report shows crew in a good light and SLF in a bad one is, of course, entirely coincidental.

** Although if he really behaved like that, he should have got a slap

[Pilot Pete]

The fact that it shows crew in a good light and SLF in a bad one is, of course, entirely coincidental. :hmm:

You reckon? If he had spat at one of my cabin attendants after having assaulted and insulted her he would have been off. Full stop, despite any protestations and promises of good behaviour. How do you that member of cabin crew felt for the lack of support she got from her skipper? I don't think it shows the crew in as good a light as you make out, but my comments are based purely on the report presented above and for all I know, a possibly unfactual report.

PP

[Kalium Chloride]

Relax, Pete. I agree with you. Outrageous and inexcusable behaviour, and they should have chucked him off - but to be fair, it looks like that was Plan A.


Such appalling behaviour, in fact, that I was merely waiting for someone to accuse the journo of exaggerating, making it up, not letting facts get in the way of a good story. But I suspect - surprise, surprise - it won't happen this time. Go figure.

[hobie]

he went to the galley area and grabbed the flight attendant by the collar, saying: "Don't come out of here again. I hate seeing your face," and spat at her.


Ban him from the flight? ..... he should have been banned from the Airline for 10 years .... :mad:

[RRAAMJET]

Folks: to those of us who have lived and worked in Asia, particularly flying to Japan, this is no surprise....

I'm shocked the man didn't demand to have the female Flt Attendant removed and disciplined:rolleyes:

I've personally had equally horrendous behavior from Asian passengers, including an awful cockpit invasion on an L-1011, followed by the flight attendants refusing to persue the matter further after landing, out of fear and misguided ancient "principles"....

I recall a CX capt being dragged from his seat on app. to BKK by a Japanese businessman, and CX being in a quandary as to whether to support the crew in pressing charges. CX saw the light of day, many other carriers do not.:*

[411A]

>>I recall a CX capt being dragged from his seat on app. to BKK by a Japanese businessman...<<

Oh really RRAAMJET?
Do give us more news on this incident, as clearly CX can't keep the pax from the flight deck...:rolleyes:

[punkalouver]

Do give us more news on this incident, as clearly CX can't keep the pax from the flight deck...:rolleyes:


"Nov. 25, 1997: As the pilots of a Cathay Pacific aircraft prepared to land in Bangkok, Thailand, a drunken Burmese passenger stormed the cockpit. He was removed by passengers and crew, handcuffed and turned over to Bangkok police upon landing. At the time of the incident, Cathay Pacific's policy allowed cockpit doors to remain unlocked during flight. The policy, an airline spokesman claimed, facilitates better communication between pilots and cabin crew."

Article was written in 2000. Someone had foresight.

http://www.salon.com/travel/diary/hest/2000/04/08/cockpits/index.html

[IcarusinJapan]

will know that an incident like the one reported in the Yomiuri is far from rare. Politicians, bureacrats and tourleaders are by far the worst offenders. In 20 years flying in and out of Japan I have been assaulted and abused on several occasions but the J-crew just turned a blind eye.

[Few Cloudy]

While flying an internal flight in Japan, I was informed that a pax was being loud but was not told until we already had the engines started...

I went to see what was up and there was a group of fellows with a big bag of beer cans. One in particular seemed to be ringleader. I had a stern word with him and relieved him of the bag, which went into the fwd galley.

Throughout the flight I asked the #1 hostess if all was well and was assured that it was. After landing, she said "Yes, we gave him back his bag of beer and than he was OK!"

Japanese lessons:

Lesson 1. The customer is always right
Lesson 2. The cockpit crew has nothing to do with cabin matters
Lesson 3. We will tell you anything to keep you happy, even if it is not true

In a similar vein, I once caught the crew talking in our crew bus about a fire which they had extinguished on board - on the flight we had just done! We had a safety refresher there and then but I doubt it made much impression. "It was only a small fire and we didn't want to disturb you captain..."

FC.

[Hellenic aviator]

Lesson 1. The customer is always right
Lesson 2. The cockpit crew has nothing to do with cabin matters
Lesson 3. We will tell you anything to keep you happy, even if it is not true
In a similar vein, I once caught the crew talking in our crew bus about a fire which they had extinguished on board - on the flight we had just done! We had a safety refresher there and then but I doubt it made much impression. "It was only a small fire and we didn't want to disturb you captain..."
FC.
I've had similar experiences to this in my Company. We've had our Chief Purser come to the flightdeck and complain about how some frequent flyer is being rude and abusive to some of our cabin crew. When asked whether she wants us to call the police upon arrival, the response is standard, "Oh noooo, please don't, he is a "Diamond Member, it's bad customer service....and I don't want to get into trouble..."
....so why come up and tell us then ? :hmm:

[Farmer 1]

When the JAL 747 crashed after losing all its hydraulics, an Americain military helicopter arrived on scene soon after, and the pilot reported seeing some survivors.

He was ordered to return to base so that Japanese rescuers could be first on scene, and so not lose face. So he did.

No idea how many more people died as a result, but the main thing is, Japan did not lose face.

[Few Cloudy]

Farmer,

I think there were but two survivors on that mountain - a hostess and a little girl, who has since become famous.

One of the people killed was the writer of the hit song known as Suki Yaki in the West - ue o muite in Japanese.

FC.

[Legal Flyer]

Few Cloudy,

You are right that there were but two survivors by the following morning when the Japanese rescuers finally arrived.

However the flight attendant subsequently testified that she heard a number of other voices from people crying out in the night.

By the morning no one was crying out.

So much for loss of face....

[IcarusinJapan]

It's worse for we passengers when flying cattle class. On one particular flt ex NRT to BNE I was surrounded by a group of drunken young blokes drinking beer from their cabin luggage. Initially they were just rude, then abusive. Usually it doesn't worry but when it began to get physical and I was thinking of retaliating I asked the wind up doll to move me. She refused. I called the purser, she refused. "I work in the industry, how about I submit a report when I get back?" "Brisbane", she smirked. "No, Narita, and I'll drop in and see XXX-san your ops manager when I get back." A spare seat magically appeared.

Recently a friend had to demand rather strongly that a J-tour leader sit down for short final into Narita. The tour leader lodged a complaint with the J-purser and my friend was dragged over the coals by the company and threatened with dismissal.