Man Thrown Off Delta Flight for Offering to Fix Broken Inflight Entertainment

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2023/12/30/man-says-he-was-thrown-off-delta-air-flight-because-he-offered-to-fix-broken-inflight-entertainment-system/

by CPLX • 3 years ago

20 23 3 years ago

paddleyourownkanoo.com

theultdev• 3 years ago

His offer was immediately declined, and Sangster was ordered to return to his seat. Sangster says he immediately complied, but while waiting for departure, he decided to take the opportunity to write a complaint on the Delta app about the delay.
The same flight attendant who had ordered him back to his seat noticed Sangster writing the complaint, and within minutes, a ground agent had boarded the plane and was telling Sangster to collect his belongings and get off.

I feel like there's more to this story than what the author suggests.

How does one "notice" another person on their phone writing a complaint?

It just looks like you're on the Delta app, which is normal on a flight.

And under that statement, the title is wrong, they weren't thrown off for offering to fix something, but for writing a complaint, which I don't believe.

Now if the person was vocal about their complaint as well, then I can see noticing...

Muromec2• 3 years ago

After some number of paranoia pills one can imagine it from a perspective of a pilot as an early stage of attempt to hijack the plane.

edrxty2• 3 years ago

The pilot likely heard "I think 24E is acting suspiciously, he tried to mess with the entertainment system, can we boot him?" and responded by saying "yeah go for it" before resuming checklists.

nunez• 3 years ago

100% agree. You don't get "thrown off" for offering to fix the WiFi. You usually get that treatment when you insist on fixing it, refuse to comply with the instructions from the FA and, perhaps in this case, refuse to stow your laptop after the FA tells you too, repeatedly.

Muromec2• 3 years ago

Makes total sense in the light of this recent one:

... at some financial institutions, you can get a SAR filed for knowing what a SAR is, because “advanced knowledge of anti-moneylaundering procedure” is a characteristic only of financial professionals and terrorists.

flir• 3 years ago

Of course, Joseph Heller and Franz Kafka never met, but if they had...

contravariant• 3 years ago

Now that sounds like a catch-22 if I ever saw one.

You can only avoid breaking the rules if you know what they are, but if you do you've already broken them.

drewcoo• 3 years ago

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is a harsh authoritarian stance but it's a common one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

edrxty2• 3 years ago

The way it works is if a flight attendant feels a passenger is somehow a risk they will notify the captain who has the authority to boot them. The captain has a locked door to hide behind and doesn't want to deal with whatever's going on so will almost always just tell the flight attendant they can boot the passenger without any further investigation. The problem is the captain is the one with the regulatory training and the flight attendants are generally fairly poorly trained on anything beyond the emergency landing and evacuation procedures on the card. As such they tend to not really be very well versed in FAA regulations, airline procedures/policy, or security/evaluating threats, hence why weird shit like this happens with some regularity.

I've had them lose their absolute shit for putting tape over a broken strobing seat light on a night flight and got to watch them attempt to improperly deplane a flight without a tail stand risking a tip over. On the continum of aerospace professional to barista the training they get is much closer to the latter unfortunately. This follows the general trend of airlines doing everything in their power to avoid investing in their employees.

defrost2• 3 years ago

Quick Question: What's the semantic difference between:

a) "Man says he was kicked off X for Y"

and

b) "Man kicked off X for Y"

Because a) is the form of the actual article headline.

Interestingly this appears to be the same Bindley Sangster with a ASAF background, aviation connections and official postions in both Georgia and Jamaica:

    The grandson of the late Sir Donald Sangster, Jamaica’s second prime minister, Sangster said he views the HIA role as adhering to his grandfather’s ideals of service to Jamaica.

    A veteran of the United State Air Force and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, he also works to identify opportunities for students within the aviation industry and to create specialised training programmes.

https://our.today/honorary-investment-advisor-appointed-for-...

All of which adds some weight to his claim.

peblos• 3 years ago

In A, the publisher is repeating the claim without validation or substantiation that the passenger was actually kicked of and reason Y is asserted by the passenger. Basically A is hearsay

In B, the publisher is stating as factual that the passenger was indeed kicked off (as opposed to getting off for any other reason) and that it was in fact for reason Y.

B puts the weight of the writer/publisher behind the claim with a higher bar for verification of events

Also, I think the passenger is trying to be helpful but surely he knows that he can’t manage the infotainment system as a passenger. There has to be some detail or interaction not reported here

defrost2• 3 years ago

but surely he knows that he can’t manage the infotainment system as a passenger.

If he's spent a lot of time in Jamaica he may have a "well somebody needs to fix this" attitude - which can also come from having a military background.

I live in a large state (3x size of Texas) with a small population (bit over 2 million) and people here pitch in in to fix stuff fairly often (bridges out, floods, fires, push trains aside to free trapped legs).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YORxs9E2Ex0

What's missing here is the nature of the interaction, was it amiable, why did Delta staff circle round on him when he started writing a complaint, why was he complaining in any case (was it because his help was refused, or because he was complaining it was broken).

EDIT: In my earlier comment s/ASAF/USAF/ <doh>

kordlessagain• 3 years ago

I would claim I will never fly Delta again, but they have those delicious little biscotti crackers I love to dip in coffee.

seanmcdirmid2• 3 years ago

Our Delta flight was cancelled twice going back from Tokyo to Seattle, each time they put us up in the Hanade airport hotel to try the flight again 24 hours later. Well, my wife promised to never fly Delta again, although we have comps for half the price of our flight to use before August. Sigh.

What are we going to do? We just have a choice between bad and worse.

Zircom• 3 years ago

Airline margins are like 3%, so explain to your wife it will hurt Delta more to use the halfprice tickets first and then never fly Delta again after that.

flashback2199• 3 years ago

Protip: When boarding, just sit down and chill out.

sys_64738• 3 years ago

Sit down, be silent, and don't draw attention to yourself. Be anonymous, in other words. It boggles my mind folk who draw attention to themselves when flying as you eventually are seen as the problem.

rokkitmensch• 3 years ago

Don't talk to cops, or anyone else wearing a uniform.

The exception is in this circumstance: to make the senior flight attendants laugh and enjoy your company.

But for the love of potatoes don't get involved in their work.

billy99k• 3 years ago

I've also had a bad experience with Delta flight attendants. I've come to the conclusion that they are authoritarians with no other power in their lives.

I flew with my wife and two kids a few months ago. We had tickets for the entire row. It was a 14 hour flight and I knew my kids (3 and 1 years old) would not be happy with the flight and I didn't want to cause issues with other passengers.

Our row was slightly cluttered (we brought some small toys to entertain the kids), but not anything out of the ordinary. My youngest cried once, but I was able to calm her down within a few minutes. We threw away all of our garbage throughout the flight and the flight attendants game by and were laughing and joking with us. Our row was spotless when we left.

Before we left, a flight attendant from business class came over and told my wife that she was piece of garbage and that we treated the flight attendants like 'maids'. I didn't hear the conversation as I was tending to my kids, but my wife told me this later, in tears.

I have no idea where this even came from. I've flown a lot with my family and have never had this experience. This flight attendant even went as far as looking up my wife's last name and threatening to get her cousin in trouble (who works for Delta).

We didn't want to cause any trouble for her cousin, so I didn't do anything. If not for her cousin, I would have gone to Delta to get this employee fired for talking to my wife like this.

jareklupinski• 3 years ago

you can tell her it's not her fault, they have a policy of making families miserable if they dare to place a child in the row behind business

after booking a row of those seats for a trip months in advance, at checkin the agent said "there was a problem with one of the seats in our row" and our family had to be split up in seats further behind for the long flight

it wasn't until i threatened to upgrade the infant to first-class that suddenly "there was no longer a problem with the seat" and we got our original reservations

Man Thrown Off Delta Flight for Offering to Fix Broken Inflight Entertainment

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