A man had taken some pictures while onboard an American Airlines flight. The flight was over, and he had departed the plane. The flight attendant had one of the officers prevent him from going further and made him return to the plane, so they could inspect the photos on his cell phone.
I had stepped into the jetbridge and the FA (flight attendant) had what I think was the pilot or FO (First Officer) block me from going further. Then they brought me back on the plane and the FA demanded I open my phone and show them the last several photos and then took the phone out of my hands to inspect them.
I don’t think so.
The flight attendants and the flight deck officers have authority on the plane. They do not have shit for authority off of the plane. You want to stop me from going somewhere? I don’t think so. I am not getting back on that plane without a fight, and I damned sure aren’t showing you shit on my phone. Go ahead, call the cops. I am not showing them shit, either.
Dwyer-Lindgren says that the staff cited policies about not taking photos of staff without consent, which later turned out to be untrue.
Taking pictures is not a crime, it is not reasonable to assume that someone who took a picture is committing a crime, even if that picture is of you, a flight attendant. I don’t give a shit what policies you think your company has. True or not, company policy cannot and does not grant you the authority to use force on anyone.
Try and force me to get on your plane, and we are about to have a fight, and if that means some people wind up with broken bones and some missing teeth, that is on them. I won’t be holding back. The airline will be paying my medical bills and anything else my my lawyer can come up with.
There was a case years ago where a loss prevention officer at a K-Mart tried to ‘arrest’ a woman who had just left the store, but that he believed had been shoplifting. She ran. He tackled her. It turns out that he was mistaken, but in the process of tackling her, she sustained a broken arm. K-Mart wound up paying her $12 million. Even in cases of false imprisonment, K-Mart once lost a case where loss prevention detained a woman who hadn’t stolen anything and wound up paying her $175,000 in damages when she sued.