Report says Pilot struck female passenger

[mickjoebill]

Delta Air Lines Pilot Hits Passenger During Fight at Atlanta Airport (UPDATE: NEW VIDEO OF CONFRONTATION) | TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/29/delta-pilot-hits-passenger-fight-video-atlanta-airport/)

April 21st in Atlanta a Delta pilot intervenes in a scuffle.

A few months ago the focus would have been solely on the feral behaviour of the passengers...

[Herod]

They were on the jetway. I would have left them there to get on with it.

[aterpster]

He was a fool to have gotten involved in any manner.

[bafanguy]

They were on the jetway. I would have left them there to get on with it.

Precisely. In the current airline environment, I'd have let them murder each other before getting involved.

People like this walk among us every minute and we now get to see them in action because of phone cameras and the internet.

Just another glamorous day at the world's busiest airport. Hilarious !!

[scotneil]

As a teacher, I'd never try to break up a fight involving girl students (get a female colleague to intervene!). This pilot should simply have called Security, who can point a gun at the aggressors if their mere presence isn't enough to stop the fight. I assume these 2 "ladies" were denied boarding ?

[DaveReidUK]

I assume these 2 "ladies" were denied boarding ?

Or you could read the report, then you wouldn't need to assume.

They were disembarking after a flight.

[RAT 5]

Bucket of cold water always works for me.

[Rwy in Sight]

I thought the correct thing is to let the fight run its course. A major SOP for me is to look away from a fight or any other bad situation - that any involvement of mine can only give me trouble.

[Airbubba]

Update from TMZ (which seems to be a tabloid 'T and A' news site like the Mail and Sun):

The Delta pilot who smacked a passenger and then walked away delivered the punch to get the woman to release a choke hold she had on the woman she was fighting ... at least that's what the airline concluded.

When you watch the video, it's confusing. It appears the pilot almost gratuitously delivers the punch out of frustration and then walks away. But a Delta official tells TMZ the video doesn't show everything, and based on interviews with the pilot, eyewitnesses and information from cops ... the pilot saw the woman in question choking out the other woman. And the pilot did what he could to release the dangerous grip.

As we reported ... the pilot was taken off duty after the incident but put back on the schedule after the airline concluded he did nothing wrong.

Neither of the women wanted to press charges against anyone.

Delta Pilot Hit Passenger to Release Choke Hold | TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/30/delta-airlines-pilot-hit-passenger-to-release-choke-hold/)

[JumpJumpJump]

They were on the jetway. I would have left them there to get on with it.

About the most sensible post I have every seen here

[hunterboy]

I'm guessing that the pilot wouldn't be able to argue self defense? If the punch would have ended up causing serious injury, I'm guessing real prison time would be a possibility?
Unless it's defending a friend or family, I think he is crazy to get physically involved. Isn't that what police and security staff do?

[aterpster]

About the most sensible post I have every seen here

Essentially what I said several posts back.

[Metro man]

Before intervening to break up a fight, let them knock each other about a bit first. That way they may welcome the intervention once the pain starts and being a bit groggy from absorbing a few punches are less likely to do you any damage.

[M-JCS]

I guess we can all be extremely thankful that we have been overrun by people pointing their mobile phones in every direction so as to provide us with live-action weekly entertainment, while doing absolutely nothing otherwise to render assistance where it is needed. Civilisation as it exists today.

[wiggy]

M-JCS

:ok:

Of course of this pilot had done the prudent thing and walked past the cat fight the footage would probably still have made it to the networks and into the internet, no doubt entitled something like have been "shock as pilot refuses to intervene in passenger disagreement" or similar, and we would again be festooned with comments about captains rights and responsibilities with regard to law and order.

[RAT 5]

I think you'll find, if the altercation was in the jetway, and in the context of intervention, any pilot would be just a member of the passing pubic with no more, or less, power than that.

[wiggy]

any pilot would be just a member of the passing pubic with no more, or less, power than that.

You know that, I know that, but .......................

[springbok449]

Why would he want to get involved? A bit like some of the guys that you see micromanaging the whole operation and then missing the big picture...

[Euclideanplane]

Because when you observe someone injured, or in some way physically threatened, you are not supposed to just walk away with your nose high in the sky, especially if there is no apparent danger posed to yourself? :rolleyes:

[RAT 5]

Take it out of the context of Prune & Pilots, and the crew/passenger relationship, and ask what you would do if this happened on the pavement outside your house. Would no-one intercede? Certainly not if they were 2 kids.

[Deadstick126]

He clearly slapped her arm, then disengaged. I don't see it as anything other than another human being stepping in courageously when called for.

[aterpster]

Take it out of the context of Prune & Pilots, and the crew/passenger relationship, and ask what you would do if this happened on the pavement outside your house. Would no-one intercede? Certainly not if they were 2 kids.

The context IS an operating captain of a scheduled air carrier flight. He rendered himself unfit for further flight duty until such time as pilot management assessed all the circumstances. He is not airline or airport security. He has to be in the right frame of mind to fly the next leg.

[tdracer]

A person observes someone attempting serious body harm to another person.
In what reality is it correct for the first person to simply "walk on by" and make no effort to stop the serious bodily harm being attempted?
That some of you seem to think "walk on by" was the correct response says a lot about you, and it's not positive...

[FIRESYSOK]

Walking away would have been the better response imo. Intervening got him on YouTube for all eternity, and removed from flight status. Keep movin'.

[rigpiggy]

In my youth, the SOP for dealing with a fight in the back was turn up the pressurization then F/O (me) went back to deal with it. landedmore than once with 1 or 2 duct taped to their seats

[West Coast]

Fire

Fear of ending up on YouTube powers your compass? If as reports suggest, one of the combatants was about to do something that could have seriously injured the other, then you have a moral obligation to step in. I understand not all will see it that way, but this isn't some clear cut decision that some who walk away make it out to be. I especially don't understand trying to put it in a context of operating the flight, I'm not going to idly watch as potential serious injuries are rendered simply because I'm to operate the flight.

[aterpster]

You don't have a clue about being an operating Part 121 PIC.

[rottenray]

In what reality is it correct for the first person to simply "walk on by" and make no effort to stop the serious bodily harm being attempted?
That some of you seem to think "walk on by" was the correct response says a lot about you, and it's not positive...

Best post so far.

To those of you saying "walk" is the best way to handle this, how would you feel if your spouse, daughter, or sig other had been the one under attack?

Shall we all just walk by?

And to the person who said let the cat fight die of it's own accord... That's rather sexist. Men damage each other bludgeoning with fists, women sometimes cause eye injuries that either take years to heal or never do.

People should never hurt one another, and if you have a chance to stop it, you should.

Part of the problem with public behavior in this reprehensible modern era is that we assume that all problems are somebody else's.

Would I have walked past that?

No.

I would have done something similar, perhaps trying to space them apart a bit first.

But when you see something like this going on in public, you should try to bring those involved back to decorous behavior.

If you walk past and ignore, you've lost all civility.

I'm not playing this card in full, but think about WWII and the effect of just ignoring wrongs right in front of you.


The context IS an operating captain of a scheduled air carrier flight. He rendered himself unfit for further flight duty until such time as pilot management assessed all the circumstances. He is not airline or airport security. He has to be in the right frame of mind to fly the next leg.

It was up to airport security to prevent this or quell it before the captain of whatever airline had to intercede. You're basically saying that duty to fly supersedes social responsibility.

I'd hate to think that any responsible, experienced captain would behave differently because he'd just exited an aircraft. And I'd hate to think that any of them would, because they're pilots, just walk past this situation.

You're basically saying ":mad: all this, I'm a pilot, let someone else handle it."

Worth pondering, I think.

[Bull at a Gate]

To those of you who say that he was not acting in "self defence" let me assure you that defence of others, even strangers, has always been covered by "self defence" in every jurisdiction which is based on the English common law.

Of course he did the right thing!

[West Coast]

Aterpster

Just like the pilot in the video I'm far more current in the 121 environment than you.

If you wouldn't step in because you're a 121 pilot, the operating pilot, on a DH or any other reason, your moral foundation is in question. You're welcome to watch someone receive a potentially life threatening injury while security or LEOs arrive, that pilot that day wasn't afraid to do something. I guarantee if you were the one getting the beating, you'd be quite happy to have a 121 pilot step in.