"Women try to open door mid-flight"
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To a certain extent, I've got to back rainboe here. It's all very well saying you should never let them on board in the first place, but in reality, it's not that simple. Sometimes you have to make a judgement call and being only human, that judgement will occasionally turn out to have been wrong.
I've often had people board who have seemed perfectly rational, only for it to become obvious later, that they have been drinking. During boarding, we have approximately 5 seconds to make that judgement and quite often, it's the one drink you then give them on board, that will tip them over the edge. Having determined that that person is now drunk, you then have the joy of telling them they can't have any more alcohol. It's not like in a bar where the bouncer can kick them out if they get rowdy. You have to control the situation as best as you can. I recently operated a flight in exactly those circumstances and spent a large portion of it explaining to a gentleman, why I was not going to serve him any more alcohol. He claimed it was not my place to tell him when he had had enough and as a business class passenger, he did not have to listen to a mere "trolly dolly"! He did, however, see sense in the end! Not sure whether it was the thought of what his company would say, or a prospect of a night in the cells that did it!
Then there's the other end of the scale. I operated a flight to Italy that should have been a normal everyday flight. It would have been, if it hadn't been for the fact that a certain large football club was playing a European Cup match there the next day. I would say 98% of the passengers had been drinking. Now, following the rules to the letter, I should have offloaded all 98%. Can you imagine the headlines the next day and all the interviews with the poor little people who "weren't drunk guv, honest" that didn't get to see the match? Headlines shouldn't matter but just take a scroll through some of the threads on here. The crew who refused to operate a flight due to the hostility of the passengers. Another one, that I think was on this part of the forum, from a guy who wanted compensation for being offloaded because the crew said his mates were drunk and he said they weren't.
I suppose, what I'm trying to say is that, all the while people are allowed to drink in airports and on aircraft, we have to play a very tricky balancing game. In my case, I'm lucky as I work for an airline with very good dispatchers and supportive flight crew who will invariably back us. We also have a policy at our airline that, on the ground when the doors are still open, the senior cabin crew member has the finally say when it comes to offloading potentially disruptive passengers. Others aren't so lucky and have to do the best they can under immense pressure. It's not ideal for any of us, but we have to work with what we've got! The world does not run in black and white.
Jsl
I've often had people board who have seemed perfectly rational, only for it to become obvious later, that they have been drinking. During boarding, we have approximately 5 seconds to make that judgement and quite often, it's the one drink you then give them on board, that will tip them over the edge. Having determined that that person is now drunk, you then have the joy of telling them they can't have any more alcohol. It's not like in a bar where the bouncer can kick them out if they get rowdy. You have to control the situation as best as you can. I recently operated a flight in exactly those circumstances and spent a large portion of it explaining to a gentleman, why I was not going to serve him any more alcohol. He claimed it was not my place to tell him when he had had enough and as a business class passenger, he did not have to listen to a mere "trolly dolly"! He did, however, see sense in the end! Not sure whether it was the thought of what his company would say, or a prospect of a night in the cells that did it!
Then there's the other end of the scale. I operated a flight to Italy that should have been a normal everyday flight. It would have been, if it hadn't been for the fact that a certain large football club was playing a European Cup match there the next day. I would say 98% of the passengers had been drinking. Now, following the rules to the letter, I should have offloaded all 98%. Can you imagine the headlines the next day and all the interviews with the poor little people who "weren't drunk guv, honest" that didn't get to see the match? Headlines shouldn't matter but just take a scroll through some of the threads on here. The crew who refused to operate a flight due to the hostility of the passengers. Another one, that I think was on this part of the forum, from a guy who wanted compensation for being offloaded because the crew said his mates were drunk and he said they weren't.
I suppose, what I'm trying to say is that, all the while people are allowed to drink in airports and on aircraft, we have to play a very tricky balancing game. In my case, I'm lucky as I work for an airline with very good dispatchers and supportive flight crew who will invariably back us. We also have a policy at our airline that, on the ground when the doors are still open, the senior cabin crew member has the finally say when it comes to offloading potentially disruptive passengers. Others aren't so lucky and have to do the best they can under immense pressure. It's not ideal for any of us, but we have to work with what we've got! The world does not run in black and white.
Jsl
Join Date: Dec 2005
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This is just dumbfounding behaviour. 
There must be something mentally wrong with these people to attempt something so idiotic, never mind the alcohol. Shocking ...
Just out of curiosity, how are the aircraft doors actually secured when in flight? I'm guessing it is pretty much impossible to open them?
There must be something mentally wrong with these people to attempt something so idiotic, never mind the alcohol. Shocking ...Just out of curiosity, how are the aircraft doors actually secured when in flight? I'm guessing it is pretty much impossible to open them?
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Willows,
They're secured by the normal means but also, by the pressure difference inside and outside of the aircraft. There's a more in depth explanation somewhere, either in this thread or the one running on the pilots rumour network but in answer to your question, no, you can't open the door in flight.
Hope that helps
Jsl
They're secured by the normal means but also, by the pressure difference inside and outside of the aircraft. There's a more in depth explanation somewhere, either in this thread or the one running on the pilots rumour network but in answer to your question, no, you can't open the door in flight.
Hope that helps
Jsl
Join Date: Dec 1999
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But sadly drunks/disruptives/perverts are not seen as a problem by my employers - one of the largest (sufferers) in Europe. (nor by many others, it seems)
There is no system whatsoever for banning, blacklisting or flagging these scrotes at all. Turf a drunken violent thug off my flight, and all he has to do is book onto the next one, and that is on our own airline, let alone all the others. There is no record made of his previous behaviour. How can that be?
What a sickening betrayal of the cabin crew who have to suffer these imbeciles/psychopaths again and again?
Picture the liability if a cabin crew is attacked by a second-time offender that the company had not bothered to blacklist.
There is no system whatsoever for banning, blacklisting or flagging these scrotes at all. Turf a drunken violent thug off my flight, and all he has to do is book onto the next one, and that is on our own airline, let alone all the others. There is no record made of his previous behaviour. How can that be?
What a sickening betrayal of the cabin crew who have to suffer these imbeciles/psychopaths again and again?
Picture the liability if a cabin crew is attacked by a second-time offender that the company had not bothered to blacklist.
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Rainboe
Rainboe, from my experience I think your view of this as a global problem is wrong. I moved from the UK to Latvia (I believe the country with the worst rate of alcaholism in Europe). Yes, the alcaholism is a HUGE problem, but the protagonists are NOT.
Local people here (speaking of the majority) will get pi
d to the hilt, but just stagger home, not cause any problems to anyone and generally conduct themselves in a non-confrontational way.
On the other hand FR bring in countless stag parties each weekend, mostly Brits and around half of whom fail to conduct themselves with the slightest decorum whatsoever.
I use FR to go visit relatives and there are invariably one or two groups of Brits who are drunk, being noisy and generally disruptive (remember the kids at the back of the class in school). When these are one or two groups of 15 guys, that totals 30 PAX being complete aholes. I know of NO instances of Latvians mis-behaving on-board.
I remember a time when I was proud to be British, now I resent it.
Local people here (speaking of the majority) will get pi
d to the hilt, but just stagger home, not cause any problems to anyone and generally conduct themselves in a non-confrontational way.On the other hand FR bring in countless stag parties each weekend, mostly Brits and around half of whom fail to conduct themselves with the slightest decorum whatsoever.
I use FR to go visit relatives and there are invariably one or two groups of Brits who are drunk, being noisy and generally disruptive (remember the kids at the back of the class in school). When these are one or two groups of 15 guys, that totals 30 PAX being complete a
holes. I know of NO instances of Latvians mis-behaving on-board.I remember a time when I was proud to be British, now I resent it.
If they try this in the US, is there not a fair chance of a sky marshal stopping them - permanently? Could be good approach here.
Let's hope these two women are slapped with such a fine that they will never be able to afford to get intoxicated again.
There must be something mentally wrong with these people to attempt something so idiotic
Woman 1 - 'where you bin then?'
Woman 2 - 'bin on 'oliday, ain't I?'
Woman 1 - 'where you go, then?'
Woman 2 - 'went to Bennydorm, didn't I?'
Woman 1 - 'where's that, then? In Spain, innit?'
Woman 2 - 'dunno, we flew there, didn't we?'
Just as remarkable was that there whole "conversation" was a series of unbroken questions - make a good TV game show
Warning Toxic!
Disgusted of Tunbridge
Disgusted of Tunbridge
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There are a couple of big problems in applying the punishment we would all like to see to such irresponsible nauseating people. They are: that the airline supplied them with at least some drinks, therefore these individuals are not fully to blame. They can even rely on 'someone spiked me drink, Guv!' The other reason is 'why should I pay for the diversion Guv? I didn't ask to go to Frankfurt! There was no need to take me there because I was restrained at the time and my sleeping pills/sedatives (because i have nerves flying Guv) mixed badly with the alcohol the cabin crew gave me!'
Faced with that, no prosecution can win, and that is why these scrotes will always get away Scot-free. Unfortunately there seems to be more and more of this irresponsible behaviour. Hate to say it, but flying has become too cheap, and that is why we can ship people for stag weekends to Lithuania/Prague/Vienna where they proceed to get totally blotted.
Faced with that, no prosecution can win, and that is why these scrotes will always get away Scot-free. Unfortunately there seems to be more and more of this irresponsible behaviour. Hate to say it, but flying has become too cheap, and that is why we can ship people for stag weekends to Lithuania/Prague/Vienna where they proceed to get totally blotted.
