A Frontier Airlines passenger confronted the crew on his flight to express concerns about the illness of another passenger. The answer? He must drive next time and must be on the air exclusion list. Hmm…
What we know about this Frontier Airlines showdown
TMZ tells the story of what happened last Thursday on a Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to Philadelphia. The passenger in seat 25C was concerned about a passenger coughing and sneezing sitting right behind him (in row 26).
The passenger in question asked to be replaced and that request was granted. Then, at some point during the flight, the passenger in question confronted one of the flight attendants to ask why the passenger had not been removed from the plane. She supposedly replied that if he was worried, he should drive next time and that he should be on the no-fly list.
This is not captured on video, so I generally doubt it. However, these exact feelings were reflected by another flight attendant on the same flight.
When the man disembarked, he confronted the crew about the situation and, in particular, about how the flight attendant spoke to him. In the nearly 90-second video, there are two flight attendants with the captain, and the passenger tries to emphasize his concern for the sick passenger.
Instead of receiving an apology or ban for being told that he should drive and be on the air exclusion list, he said that … he should be driving next time and that he should be on the air exclusion list.
Here are some of the highlights:
- When the passenger starts to tell what happened, the flight attendant replies “this is a means of transportation, sir, you have an option, you can drive your car if it’s a problem, you can’t tell people to get off the plane if they are coughing or sneezing ”
- When the passenger reports his version of events and asks if the coughing and sneezing passenger should not have been removed, the flight attendant asks “why should he be removed?” and the passenger replies “because the guy is sick”, to which the flight attendant replies “you are not a doctor”
- At that point, the flight attendant says to the passenger “you are not wearing the mask either”, to which the passenger replies “I put two on, sir”
- The passenger at this point explains how he was told that he should drive his car and be on the air exclusion list; at this point, this other commissioner says “you should be on the air exclusion list, you really should be”
- When the passenger asks why he should be on the air exclusion list, the flight attendant replies “because you are sending someone out for sneezing and coughing”
You can watch the video here:
My opinion on the situation of Frontier Airlines
I have a few different ideas about this.
First, we don’t know how the passenger behaved during the flight. Did he only call the commissioner’s attention to this once or twice? Or did he get aggressive, bring it up a dozen times, or was he asked to stop, but he didn’t? I will say that the man looks extremely calm in the video, much more than just about any other airplane showdown you will see on the tape.
Then, flight attendants must act in a more professional manner. There is absolutely no need to tell a passenger that they should be driving next time or that they should be on the air exclusion list. This is simply unnecessary and shows the inability to reduce the scale of situations.
I’m not sure if the airline realistically did anything wrong by not removing this passenger:
- During check-in, Frontier Airlines requires passengers to acknowledge that they have no symptoms of coronavirus and have not contacted anyone who has them
- Frontier Airlines does temperature checks at the gate (I am not suggesting it is useful, but it is worth mentioning, as Frontier is one of the few US airlines to do this)
- Obviously, we do not know the severity of coughing and sneezing, but I generally do not think this is sufficient reason to expel someone from an airplane, since many people sneeze due to allergies etc.
Even with airlines taking precautions, at the end of the day there are hundreds of thousands of people flying daily in the United States, and there will be some people who are not good at wearing masks, there will be some people who look sick, and yes, there will even be some people with coronavirus. Airlines will never be able to eliminate all these passengers.
Frontier Airlines A321
Result
A Frontier Airlines passenger asked to be resettled when someone immediately behind him coughed and sneezed repeatedly. Afterwards, the man expressed his concern to the crew again and was informed that he should be driving next time and should be on the air exclusion list. Then, when he expressed concern to other crew members about the way he was treated, they said the same thing.
I’m not sure if the crew did anything wrong in terms of not removing the apparently sick passenger (we just don’t know enough), but they certainly could have acted more professionally with this man.
Although the FAA said it would adopt a “zero tolerance” policy towards passengers who misbehave, and Delta even threatened to ban rude passengers, I’m not sure if that would qualify.
What do you think of this situation at Frontier Airlines?