Aggressive PAX

[Peter L]

Dear all,
I have just returned from JFK this morning and have had to take more abuse from a small amount of pax than ever!!! One pax traveling with his 3 children and wife came the closest to punching my purser(lovely lady) simply because we were one short on a child meal!!!! He was enormous and it would have taken 4 or 5 men to take him down. This is really unbelievable behavior for such a small mistake. The crew member incharge CSD calmed him down after the pax had screemed at us and my purser(the rest of the pax were terified)and told him if he had a problem talk only to him.This seemed to work!! He was traveling on to GLS so we obviously radioed ahead just to warn them of the bully.
I was really wondering is this reaction happening to anyone else over such small details??? I myself don't really get nervous around aggressive pax but this morning I thought this was it!!!
PS All this happened with his 9 year old sitting on one side of him and 6 year old on the other. Wife never spoke...!!!! I wonder why!!!!! Not..




[This message has been edited by Peter L (edited 28 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Peter L (edited 28 April 2001).]

[f40]

Hey Peter,
In answer to your question; Yes it does!

I reckon that most of us have experienced pax totally flipping out at some (in our eyes) insignificant minor detail going wrong.
A recent thread on the same subject is:

http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/Forum1/HTML/013495.html

I would be very interested in hearing colleagues' opinion on the following.
What kind of aggressive behaviour do you encounter most often on board? What do you think is the underlaying cause of this so often irrational bahaviour? What strategies do you and your company have for dealing with it/defusing the situation/taking action against the pax in question? What do you personally think might be done differently both in- and outside the aircraft to reduce the number of air-rage incidents? What support does your company provide after you have been subjected to pax-aggression? Do you feel the pilots in your company support your decisions when it comes to crunch-time? How far do you go in letting pax vent their anger/frustration? And what do you do when you figure he or she has crossed the line? Does your company provide you with any formal training in dealing with this alas more frequently occuring situation? And is this a purely verbal tarining or do you get actual "combat" training?


Once again, I'd be very very interested to know your answers to any or all of the above. Have learnt some good things on this forum before, and perhaps we can enlighten eachother on this topic as well?

PS: Snoopy is best ignored I think. Squid's keeping his beady eye on the poor critter so he shouldn't be long for this world. :)

Snoopy who??

Regards from the Towers




[This message has been edited by PPRuNe Towers (edited 25 April 2001).]

[f40]

Hey PTT, how about waving that same magic hand of yours over some of our aggro pax huh?
Stunningly effective you are man! :)

[Silkman]

Two things spring to mind with irate pax and why they get in a strop.
Firstly, it's ignorance.Basically they havent a clue what the hell is going on or happening to them especially if something goes wrong.Then they become frightened,and when one becomes frightened they get aggitated.Perhaps if programmes like 'Airline' were to show something constructive, instead of staff bashing, we would all have easier lives.Educating these poor souls is the answer.Show an article about a pax being dragged off an aircraft by the boys in blue, for giving too much grief to the crew, and let them see the consequences.Then they may think again.

Secondly,Watchdog syndrome.Thanks to dear old Anne Robinson,pax now think it is quite acceptable to kick up a fuss and that they will get what they want,if and when things go wrong.
I've lost count recently at the amount of people who have said,'Watchdog will be hearing about this'.
P*ss off. Next.

[Peter L]

Dear Silkman,
Thanks for your reply!!! What you say about the media etc encouraging kicking up a stink about very little is very true. I never really thought about it like that but you are so right.

cheers
Peter

[Myk Hunt]

Who was the crewmember in charge?..The captain? Who raidio´d in.?... Capt/FO? I didn´t read anything about cockpit crew in your article. Isn´t the Capt. and the FO. senior crew members or did you actually want to say "senior CABINcrew member".
Just a thaught.

[Peter L]

Dear MYK Hunt,
To answer your questions and obviously not give names, the Cpt radioed ahead. I personnally did not talk to the cpt because the purser and csd took over the situation from me. I think if the situation could have been videoed you could have thrown the book at the Pax but really not much was done. I know the flight deck knew abut the pax because they raioed ahead but as far as I know that was the end of the matter.

Thanks for asking
Peter

[mainfrog2]

Most of these problems usually grow from a small matter, then escalate. Get your facts straight and be confident in front of the pax, that usually helps. I've lost count of the number of time a passenger will tell you 'THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS WITH THIS AIRLINE' - means, I've had a long drive to the airport, check in wouldn't let me take my bags into the cabin, we're going to be five minutes late, my boss is on my back for something, it's raining, I've never flown with this airline before but your going to catch it anyway!

Note: don't give them the cabin crew winning smile it P's them off even more.

Take comfort in the fact that most of the time you only need to know these people for a few hours, the person next to them may have a whole lifetime with them.

[Skylark]

You could start by not serving alcohol to intoxicated passengers.
Really basic stuff!

[kfly]

Skylark - I agree giving passengers large quantities of alcohol does not help if they are showing signs of being disruptive. Unfortunately alcohol is not always the cause of aggressive or strange behaviour, and passengers do not have labels to tell us they are about to go beserk or that a simple thing like not liking the film being shown is enough to tip them over the edge.

I was on the BA2069 Nairbobi flight in which has been well documented about the behaviour of the passenger who nearly crashed the plane, alcohol had no part in that incident.

[Chinook]

As a pilot who really enjoys flying in the back being looked after by helpful, friendly and mostly attractive (I don't dig the male attendants), and as a parent who is required occasionally to travel with two small children I can see both points of view here.

Aggression from pax is always inappropriate but walk a mile in his shoes, I don't know how long the flight was but a SYD-LHR trip with two toddlers in tow is as close as I have ever got to beating MY kids.

Agree wholehaertedly with the positive comments, and would offer this advice:

The passenger wants a SOLUTION to his problem, not an APOLOGY or indifference.

See you next time in economy (with the kids).



------------------
Park it, tie it down, lock it, lets go to the pub!!!!!

[Peter L]

Dear Chinook,
Sorry you don't "Dig" male attendents but not all of us our your stereo typical type that you probably usually come across!! Just to let you know that the kids of the bully were great and never made a noise. I am not surprised actually if you had seen the neck on this guy it was bigger than Jonah Lomu's.
The flight was 6 hours long!!! Not a 12 or 14 hour nightmare!!! He did need a explanation for the mistake and was also given a solution ie: what sort of food could we find for him " Just name it" from first class or Club but he did not want to listen. I have 2 brothers (One a pilot)who have already got 6 little girls between them and they all travel a lot and I come from a large family and traveled a lot and never did my Dad behave like a thug when we were a pain in the ass(all the time if I remember!!). So traveling with the kids good or bad does not excuse this behavior.

PS See you in economy and I hope I can change your opinion of male crew!!!! Also sorry about the NZ chap mentioned but I knew you might appreciate it!!! HaHa



[This message has been edited by Peter L (edited 02 May 2001).]

[Chinook]

[This message has been edited by Chinook (edited 03 May 2001).]