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American Airlines flight AA2557 departed New York John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) on Tuesday night headed for Cheddi Jagan International Airport (GEO) in Guyana. Shortly after takeoff a flight attendant and Indian cultural personality, Joel Ghansham, got into an argument that caused the plane to divert back to its origin.
Ghansham claims that the argument stemmed from the flight attendant refusing to lift his carry-on bag into the overheard bin. Ghansham said he recently had spinal surgery and quoted the flight attendant as saying: “I don’t get paid that kind of money but if you don’t like it there is always another airline.” Another flight attendant in Business Class lifted the bag and boarding completed.
Stabroek News reported that when the original flight attendant came to take beverage orders, Ghansham says that he said, “no, thank you waiter.” The flight attendant warned him that his attitude would get the plane turned around. Ghansham sais, “you must be God so you do it.” This prompted a call to the pilots and the plane was quickly brought back to New York.
Anthony’s Take: There are always two sides to every story, but Ghansham’s own admissions are pretty damning. A flight attendant should not be talked down to as if they are less than and they are not “waiters.” Ghansham’s comments sound as if he had an attitude and the flight attendant did the right thing in not having to deal with his bad attitude or have the situation escalate further.
(Image Credit: Stabroek News.)
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31 comments
Shame on the flight attendant, but even more shame for the Captain who turned his ship around because a flight attendant was insulted — assuming the truth of the worst of the allegations — aborting a mission that cost untold hours and misery for passengers — imagine the missed funerals, weddings, job interviews, business opportunities, that people are traveling for — and plenty of money for his company, so that he could be a valiant hero to a damsel in distress, who was never in any real danger no matter how badly her tender feelings were hurt. This story is an outrage far worse than anything the passenger — who could have been dealt with separately without punishing all of the other innocent people on board — is claimed to have done.
I disagree. The minute you start allowing someone to be rude to a flight attendant they will escalate and then you are 38000 feet with a big problem. A hard line must be drawn for safety and anyway’ why should an employee have to put up with disrespect from anyone ever?
Flight attendants are not paid to lift your bags . Don’t bring what you can’t lift ! That is why the airplanes will check your bag at no cost at the gate .
I say this as someone with much respect for the inflight team and as a 20-year airline employee who has been called a fair share of names and even had a soda thrown at them…. If all this passenger did was insult with words, not threaten or make any sort of physical efforts, then this is a huge overreaction and a disservice to the others on board the flight and those waiting on the return service and likely going to miss connections. If I were another passenger on board and this flight returned for this reason, I would want the flight attendant removed as clearly they don’t possess the emotional maturity to handle it, making me question how they’d handle something really serious. Bad on the passenger but bad on AA if this really is all it is.
Well said. The amount of damage done to the other passengers, as well as AA’s reputation, should get both the purser and the captain disciplined. Not only was there no altercation, just words, the words were not threatening. I know there is a labor shortage, but AA simply cannot afford to either A) hire stewards that threaten passengers with “stop using words I find offensive or I’ll turn this plane around” or B) flight crews that actually ruin trips for all the other passengers just to prove the flight crew’s power over the passengers. Imagine what flying would be like if every crew turned around a flight every time some D-list celebrity said something a stewardess didn’t like.
Concur, poor judgement here
So an FA gets their pride hurt and all the rest of the passengers have to pay for it. Got it. I’ll continue never saying a word to FAs other than yes or no. Interacting with them any further than that is a winless exercise in risk taking. Just do whatever it is you need to do in addition to your yapping in the galley, FAs, and get me to where I paid to go in a reasonable amount of time.
THE QUEEN NEEDED TO NE REMOVED!
BAD ATTITUDE!
NO ONE NEEDS TO TOLERATE ABUSE FROM A VICIOUS QUEEN!
I can Guarantee that there is more to this story than what is in this article! I was a Flight Attendant for 50 years and because l did lift everyone’s bag for all those years l ended up losing my job because l had four shoulder surgeries and wasn’t able to return to work! You packed your bag , you carried it through your house into the car, dragged it through the airport and we’re offered the chance to check it! Then you expect someone to lift it into the overhead! That Flight Attendant is on that airplane for your safety! They are there to get you off that burning airplane in 90 seconds or less! Yes you should expect meal and beverage service but if you think that the Captain on any airline would even consider turning around and landing an airplane without a really good reason you are wrong! Definitely more to this story!
The f.a. are not the pilot. He is the one getting you there safely. The f.a. have to be trained but 99.999% they are there to help keep you comfortable while the pilot gets you there safely. The more is why did the pilot cater to her?
If he said he had spinal surgery and needed help, that flight attendant violated his ADA rights. We obviously don’t know fully both sides of the story but if that started the tension, she deserved the disrespect.
Flight attendants are not there to lift bags. In fact, most of them don’t get paid until the boarding door is closed, so if they get hurt lifting a bag there’s no workers compensation. The reasonable accommodation was for this passenger to check the bag he/she couldn’t lift.
He made it out of his house through the airport and to the plane without needing help. Suddenly he cannot lift it. Sounds like he wanted a servant
Well, the flight attendant literally is there to be a servant. You know the obscenely high amount of money you get for ignoring passengers? That’s what it was meant to do.
Well, the flight attendant literally is there to be a servant. You know the obscenely high amount of money you get for ignoring passengers? That’s what it was meant to do.
I’ve been a flight attendant for many years. Do you know how many of us are injured by passenger bags . Too many to count. Sorry you tote it you load it. And the abuse by passengers has run rampant. The proper measures were taken. Off to prison you cow.
Hoping more flight attendant are assaulted. Stupid twat.
This is way far from being assaulted
Let’s not make this about the bag. The plane was turned around long after that the bag was dealt with, and whether the FA refused help or complied (I don’t care which) that has nothing to do with the decision to turn around the airplane and interfere with the plans from Honeymoons to Funerals that people were making this trip to Guyana for.
Wait a minute, so calling a FA a waiter is 100% justification to waste all that fuel and ruin hundreds of people’s plans to turn a wide body around? There better be some real evidence there that he was threatening or getting more belligerent to justify that, otherwise the entire crew should hit the unemployment line.
The captain is the one who made the decision, but i tend to agree with you
As a flight attendant, I can assure you there was more to the story. They only told the diva’s side, not the flight attendant’s. We don’t ever turn the plane around for petty, childish insults. There had to be a level of threat breached here. Threatening a flight attendant (or another passenger!) or any kind of physical altercation will have you removed. Airlines don’t put up with that nonsense anymore.
The captain should be fired.
Good for the flight attendant and the captain. And to hell with you bitch ass flight attendant hating pieces of shits. If that messy ass pancake makeup bitch would’ve acted right then HE wouldn’t have inconvenienced those passengers. And the captain can do what the hell he wants with his airplane.
No it is NOT HIS PLANE. You sound like a lot of fun. You’d probably cause the passengers to want to get off.
All you Flight Attendant/Pilot Haters……….Need to learn to Walk or Drive and Stay Away from the Airport.
You drive so we can enjoy the flight with the nice ones.
The flight attendant is stupid. The editor of this article is stupid. Full stop.
Nobody could demonstrate the delusional entitlement of flight attendants better than “G. Labat” above.
“Off to prison you cow.”
They think it should be a crime to insult flight attendants by referring to them as “waiter.” This is the crisis.
Bingo!
since the passenger was proposed 10’000 miles compensation instead of being blacklisted like usual for disruptive travelers, its means there was evidences of AA being at fault.
And even if law claim that stewards don’t have to lift your bags, disabled assistance law overrule it.