Monday, August 9, 2010

FINALLY. A FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO SPEAKS JIVE: You've probably already read about an incident at the end of a JetBlue flight today. Blogger Phil Catilenet was on the plane, and files this uncensored report. (HT: The 700 Level.)

Added: Video, below the fold, of Catilenet on the CBS Early Show today:


25 comments:

  1. Adam C.9:07 PM

    Calm down! Get a hold of yourself!

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  2. bill.9:43 PM

    on some airline somewhere...taxiing to the gate this guy gets up for his overhead luggage.

    Waitress in the sky: Sir, you have to stay seated...SIR, you must stay seated until the plane reaches the gate.
    annoying guy: ignores WITS.
    WITS: walking towards guy. YOU MUST SIT DOWN NOW.
    annoying guy: yes yes I know but doesn't stop
    WITS: APPARENTLY NOT. shoves annoying guy back in his seat.

    Flight attendants really don't like it when you stand up early.

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  3. My favorite flight attendant anecdote involves Muhammad Ali:

    FA: Mr. Ali, you need to fasten your seat belt now.
    MA: Superman don't need no seatbelt.
    FA: Superman don't need no airplane either.

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  4. The best part of the story is that apparently, Ali promptly, and without further complaint, then fastened his seat belt.

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  5. One thing's bugging me about this story, the account at the linked blog claims that the attendant during his hissy said he'd been at the job 28 years, but the NYT report (and the flight attendant's myspace account) claims he's 38.

    Something doesn't add up. Either some airline was ignoring child labor laws back in the deep dark 80s, or the blogger misheard what was spoken, or Mr. Steven Slater shaved 10 years off his age at some point.

    (which always seems like a bad idea, is it better to be a well preserved 48, or a shop-worn 38?)

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  6. Watts9:35 AM

    Of course he did.  Silly me, not including the denouement. 

    That anecdote came from a book I stole from my dad as a kid and read a bajillion times.  It was called "Sportswit" and was a collection of quotations and anecdotes from and about the world of sports and sporting figures.  It also explains why my knowledge of sports anecdotes stops somewhere in the mid-80s.

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  7. I read in AM NY that the FA was having sex when the cops showed up.

    A friend of mine was on a Pittsburgh-NY flight recently and had a really crazy passenger on board.  My friend (who is an average-sized guy) intervened and told the passenger to sit down.  Apparently, this doesn't happen that often because the flight attendants and the pilot took my friend out for drinks in the airport to thank him!!

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  8. I am fairly sure that the phrase "inflating the slide" is going to become a regular part of my lexicon.  Especially on frustrating work days (helps that today is one of them):  "I'm about an inch away from inflating the slide."  

    This story leads to two distinct questions, both in some sense within this blog's jurisdiction.  FIRST, what does Slater do to capitalize on his fame after the obvious (GMA, Letterman, etc.)?  How long can it be until he's in a dance competition against Blago, or a cookoff against Richard Hatch?  What else?

    SECOND, picking up on KR's post:  What activities would prompt you to intervene on a plane?  How long does the person next to you need to continue using his/her electronic device after being told to shut it down before you say something (or do you never)?  Do you ever tell someone to sit down?  To do anything else?  (I mostly sit and let it pass, unless I think it's really causing danger, which is almost never.)

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  9. (By the way, I never intervene re: devices, because I know there's really NO safety implication, but the "rules are rules" side of me does get annoyed by it.)

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  10. If personally and individually requested to turn off the ipod, I will do so.  Otherwise, my radio-free device and I enjoy communing all flight long.

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  11. Anonymous11:16 AM

    ...or he's simply bad at math.

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  12. To Russ' question - there are a lot of lawyers here.  I wonder if we're more irked by blatant rule violations...

    But I would intervene if it was a safety issue.  But that's the former teacher talking - I have no fear in such a situation.

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  13. "We're flying in a Lockheed Eagle series L1011. It came off the line 20 months ago. It carries a Sim-5 Transponder tracking system. Are you telling me I can still flummox this thing with something I bought at Radio Shack?"

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  14. Related: if my Kindle's in wireless mode, do I have to turn it off during takeoff and landing?

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  15. Benner12:45 PM

    So, R.E.M. needs a new guitarist?

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  16. KarenNM1:03 PM

    Good question - I flew with my new Kindle for the first time last week and wasn't sure what to do.  So I left it in wireless mode, left in on, and nothing bad happened (I even read through our landing in PDX).  I'll also shamefully admit here that I'm not sure how to turn the darn thing off all the way.  I've read the instructions, Google'd it, and still haven't figured it out.

    Separate note - colleague reported hearing music on a late-night flight last weekend, thought someone had their headphones on too loud.  Turns out that an older gentleman had pulled out a HARMONICA and was playing it in his seat.  No drama, someone asked him to stop and he did.  But really, a harmonica?

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  17. spacewoman1:07 PM

    I once unleashed a string of profanity on a fellow passenger, actually.  It was when spaceboy the first was 6 months old, and i very nicely and apologetically informed the man seated in front of him that there was a baby in a carseat behind him, so we would really appreciate it if he didn't try to recline his seat all the way once the flight got going, and he said something rude and then purposely slammed his seat back as hard as he could, whacking the carseat.  I happened to be holding the spacie at the time, but this jerk did not look to see if there was a baby in the seat before smashing it ON PURPOSE.  Spaceboy then heard a whole lot of new words that i had been planning to wait at least another year before teaching him.  I say it's fair game to speak up when a fellow passenger is trying to injure your child.

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  18. I'm sure there are many comparisons between prison and an airplane.  Wait, prison gives you meals.

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  19. Travis1:36 PM

    Speaking of "rules are rules", I've been asked to remove my perscription sunglasses during the 'emergency procedures skit'.

    Even after explaining that, without the glasses, the attendants are just blurry shapes, they prefer to see the whites of my eyes rather than allowing me to see the proper way to fasten a seatbelt.

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  20. Absolutely.  I would have slammed him back forward, actually.  A client of mine has a device that prevents the seat in front from reclining.  I think that's bad form -- there is SOME right to recline.  But it's not an absolute right, and circumstances such as yours warrant some mitigation.  

    I will say that, given the cramming of seats in recent years, the reclining thing can make a flight nearly unbearable for someone who is significantly overweight (and worse if that person is broad-shouldered).  I haven't had this problem lately, thankfully, but a year or so ago, before I started dropping a lot of pounds, it could be awful.  

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  21. I think the "right" answer is that it should stay on.  (As all Kindle owners know, the "off" position is the same as the "on" position, except that the electronic ink is differently arranged.)  But I've always assumed that this is too hard for your average seatmate or flight attendant to get, so I've turned mine off.  It's annoying, because a chief advantage of the Kindle is that you can use it on travel and not need much else to entertain you; if you're going to turn the Kindle off for take-off and landing, you (or at least I) feel a need to also have a magazine or hard-copy book or newspaper.

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  22. bella wilfer3:29 PM

    Took me forever to figure out how to turn the Kindle all the way off - just hold the on/off button for about 30 seconds in the "off" position and it'll eventually go all the way blank (rather than that screen saver thing).  This does wonders to conserve battery life...

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  23. spacewoman3:53 PM

    I once flew from LAX to Chicago next to a family that let their 2 year old play with a babydoll that cried the entire way.  If your actual 2 year old is crying and there's nothing you can do (and I think you owe it to your fellow passengers to at least try a Dora video), fine, but if it's your 2 year old's toy that is crying for 4 solid hours?  That is not cool.

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  24. Chuck9:43 AM

    Anyone else notice the ton of interview requests Catilenet received from the media in the comments to his blog post?

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  25. Watts9:51 AM

    I don't know where I'd be on airplanes without the kindness of strangers - I'm only 4'10" and unless I stand on a set (which they really rather you'd not do) I can't get anything out of the overhead bin.  I can throw a jacket or bag or small suitcase up there, sure, but I can't get it back down while standing on the floor.  The flight attendants are not allowed to help you in this situation.  I have had so many men and women over the years help me get my bags down, when it offered no benefit to them and even cost them sometimes in the sense that they delayed their own exit to help me.

    Which is why when I see people being assholes to other people on a plane it enrages me.  It doesn't have to be like that and I have all kinds of proof that a lot of the time it isn't.

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