Maniac On Board

January 16, 2010

in Passenger Stories

On a flight from Las Vegas to Oakland my husband and I were seated in a row of 3 seats and the middle seat was vacant, and I believe the only vacant seat on the plane. About 1/2 and hour out of Vegas we heard yelling, screaming, cursing and the sound of a crying baby coming from the back of the plane. Next we see a panicked woman with her baby literally climbing over seats to get away from her male companion. The man is then in the aisle going after her and cursing.

The FA intercepts him and he pushes her down into the aisle. Another FA arrives to help and between the two of them they have him with his hands behind his back. They march him to the front; all the while he is thrashing about and they stop at the open seat between my husband and I and tell him to sit there. I stand up and say “I’m not sitting next to him I don’t feel safe” so I get up and stand at Row 1A and the angry man is seated in my seat. He continues to yell and kick the seat in front of him and curse at my husband who then stands up and joins me standing at Row 1A.

Keep in mind this is prior to the 911 incident so all the passengers are staying seated and frightened. And may I add I was very frightened because you realize there is really no escape from him. An older lady in 1A is crying and asking why this is happening, and all the passengers around us are very scared because the angry passenger will not calm down. The people in front of him whose seats are being kicked ask him to stop and this makes him go into a screaming tirade and he hits the man on the head with his fists. The tirade continues right up to the descent and there are no seats for my husband and I to sit in except next to the maniac.

Meanwhile the FAs are on the PA system doing the prepare for landing announcements and telling little jokes and singing and my husband and I are still standing up… and guess what we were still standing up as the plane touched down and taxied in. The doors opened at the terminal and we were told to stay in our seats per PA announcement (we were still standing) and the police came aboard and handcuffed and removed the maniac.

I wrote a letter to the airline telling this story and asking for a partial refund of our ticket since we didn’t use our seats. They offered us $500 in flight coupons and I told them I wanted a refund because I absolutely will never fly with their airline again, and I have stuck to that promise. I thought it was very inappropriate for the FAs to just continue like nothing was happening and singing their stupid little ditties and making jokes while the front passengers were sitting there (us standing there) frozen with fear. They mailed us flight coupons that I gave away to our sons.

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

david January 15, 2010 at 8:39 pm

i was kind of believing it till the last paragraph……..under no circumstance would you be allowed to stand up during landing as it is extremely dangerous and is against the rules they would have made sure that you were sitting somewhere…..maybe his old seat, there is no way that you were standing at landing

besides if you were standing than how many times did you hit your head and fall over? coz there isn't a chance that you would be able to stand through all of that

besides it sounds like they put himm in your seat and then left him to himself? well then why wouldnt he just get up and continue his tirade? and if he had his hands tied behind his back than how would he get his fists out to hit the passenger in front of him? im sure that they wouldnt leave someone acting like that to have the ability to harm others in that way so im sure they kept his hands behind him in some sort of way

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really? January 15, 2010 at 9:08 pm

I don't believe any part of this made up story….the flight attendants were preparing for final and telling jokes while all this was going on and you stood at the front of the cabin for the whole landing? Too many just didn't happens

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JoJo January 16, 2010 at 8:19 am

FAs acting like everything is hunky-dory is a tactic they use to give the impression that there's nothing to worry about so that passengers don't panic.

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Aaron January 16, 2010 at 11:01 am

I don't believe it.

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ps January 16, 2010 at 11:26 am

If this was true it would have been in the papers

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Big Betty January 16, 2010 at 12:30 pm

She said it was pre-911, so maybe it did make the news. I suspect, though, that incidents like that weren't as widely reported as they are now.

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cs January 17, 2010 at 4:16 pm

Believable up until standing at landing. That just isn't, wasn't, and will never be allowed.

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Salamandra January 23, 2010 at 12:07 am

LIAR… Hate made up stories. But this is the biggest of all, standing while landing? You really are the Queen Master of LIARS. Shame on you:(-

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Tony March 9, 2010 at 4:54 am

Same thing happened to me and my wife….But the Captain and First officer insisted we sit in thier seats…Dont know where they sat.Good job i knew how to land a 777.

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