[javacat]

Non one at Southwest Airlines cares.

Seriously...no one.

Feel the LUV? Hardly.

You know what? I am at fault, because I should have just removed myself from the situation. That is on one hand. On the other hand...the guy was a paranoid drunk...and he was at least vaguely familiar with me. When 'new people' started to approach, he started flailing his hands about, and he was threatening to hurt people. I was able to keep him calm long enough for the plane to touch down.



They should have put him in restraints...and I was in shock after everything that happened. I should have said that I would press charges...but there was this part of me who is patriotic, and thought...what if he really is telling the truth and is...



The truth is...being drunk is no excuse. Though...if it really were true...his story about going over to Iraq and believing he is going to die...I can sympathize...but my face and wrist sure hurt something awful this morning.

It's perhaps been way too long that I learned the lesson...to just not get involved and to not give a damn about people anymore.

Here is what happened (in an e-mail written to consumerist.com (a consumer advocate website) complaining about what happened..because Southwest isn't doing crap at this point). (if it sounds silly that I want to be compensated for the food what was thrown away...well, you've never had one of Barb's pasties...and you have no idea how long I'd been looking forward to eating one. I don't want to sue for pain or damages or any of that crap. Hardly. I just want the guy's name so I can press charges.).

I was impressed by what I'd read, how they treat their employees and supposedly go above and beyond to keep their customers happy and satisfied

Unfortunately, I have had an experience that causes me to question the accuracy of the presentation I gave in my class.

Last night I was a passenger on flight 24 from Detroit to Baltimore. I'd just spent a lovely Christmas with my family, and shortly before arriving at the airport, went out of my way to stop at Barb's in Clawson, Michigan to pick up some meat pies called pasties (they make ones that are just as good as the ones made in the upper Peninsula of Michigan without the six hour drive!).

I sat down in the very front aisle next to a blond haired man.

It became apparent he was distraught. He told me that he was going to die...that he was a government employee being sent to an area of the world where the previous five people had been killed, and that he was going to die. He talked about his 8 month old daughter, how he she was taken care of because he had taken out a $500,000 policy on her, how he was devastated he was never going to see her again, and how difficult it was to say goodbye to her at the airport.

I felt badly for him. When he showed me his daughter's photo, I saw that he did have a government ID in his wallet. I talked to him, tried to convince him that he was not going to die. I thought I was making headway. He offered to share a drink coupon with me, and I accepted. The flight staff gave us free drinks, making his (3) drinks double vodkas with cranberry juice.

He confided in me that he had been anesthetizing himself since he got the call at 9am that he was being activated (for a 'top secret' mission to a place he could not name).

After he was about 1/2 way through the third double vodka and cranberry, he became a paranoid drunk. He flailed his hands about and hit me in the face, at which time I grabbed both of his hands and asked for help. One of the flight personnel came over to talk to him, and there was a woman beside me who advised me to talk to him in calming tones as I had before (I was advised she was either a police officer or a military person...I'm not sure). I was asked if I wanted to move and looking back...I was stupid. I should have said yes. BUT...he was threatening to kill people, told me he could hurt people and wanted to get into a fight.

So I told him, you wouldn't hurt me, right? He said no. I pointed out that the airlines personnel were women, and he wouldn't hurt them...right? And he said no...but then he tried to get up from his seat to go after a man he saw sitting not too far behind us.

Around this time, one of the personnel asked me to move. She said that the man sitting behind was in the military and a counselor. I told her not to put him there, because the man I was sitting next to wanted to get into a fight with and hurt someone.

He was at that paranoid drunk stage, where I believe he would have been much more difficult to handle if I had moved. When the man was between us, he had the man's arm pinned behind him at one point and threatened to break it. I talked him down and was promising him that he wasn't going to die in Iraq (he blurted it out), and then reminded him if this was a secret mission, he needed to remember his government background.

*NOTE: The flight personnel who served him drinks...one of them thought he said his 8 month old daughter had died, which is why they were giving him the free drinks, and is also the reason they gave me when they brought the man over who said he was a counselor. They had told him that the passenger I was sitting with...that his daughter had died...and that is what the 'counselor' initially started talking about, telling him that he understood about having a child who died.

During all of this, he was flailing his arms and hands about and I held them so he wouldn't hurt me or anyone else. I had made him promise to hold my hands, and he agreed, in return for being able to see my *ss later. He was that drunk...declaring his love for me, slobbering kisses on my hand...and I didn't believe he would hurt me per se...but I wasn't so certain he might not hurt other people.

I can only say that however trained and experienced the personnel were, they did thank me for helping keep him calm, and one said to me that she agreed if I hadn't stayed where I was that the situation could have been worse.

He was not put in restraints by the air crew, and security, to my knowledge was not called. I know that airlines personnel put him in a wheel chair and called him a cab, or so I was told.

I broke down into tears after all this...it was stressful. I cried, in the bathroom, and I cried getting off the plane. The flight crew told me all my things were off the plane. I went back to look, and saw the plastic bag that I'd initially accepted for the man whom I was sitting next to (when we thought he was going to throw up), and I thought all my things were in there (and found out later that they were not), as it was sitting next to my carry-on and my computer bag.

I told them I would help them find out who he was because he wouldn't tell them. When I got to the top of the ramp, he was in a wheel chair. I asked him if I could see the picture of his daughter again, and in doing so, was able to show his drivers license to one of the personnel so they might know his name and whom to name in the report.

I even tried to call information to see if I might contact his wife, and perhaps she could call him and calm him down...but I did not remember the correct spelling of his last name, only the street he lived on and the name of the city he lived in.

I was asked by someone if I wanted to press charges, but I was stressed, upset, and gave the benefit of the doubt that if he was really going to be sent overseas...and he was distraught... I figured that the airlines would take care of him from there and I could be done with it.

I thought it was over. I was wrong.

The previous day, I had accepted a voluntary bump, and went to the baggage area to claim my bags. I got a cart, put my baggage on it, and as I came out of the womens restroom...he was sitting on a bench, saw me, and was *very* happy to see me. He threw his bags on my cart and went outside for a smoke.

I am a nice person...and I was more than a little bit in shock over what happened, and I was unsure what to do. I asked someone to have Southwest call security, but was told that all they could do was call police. I wasn't sure what I would tell police if he came, remembered how he was on the flight, and he was just way too inebriated to be left alone. I was advised by security personnel by the entrance into the baggage area, that I was safe, that they would call police if I wanted, and I just explained the situation and asked them to keep an eye on me...told them I would let them know if I needed them, and went back to babysit this man and see if there was some way I could get him in touch with his family or his wife.

This man lied and said he didn't have his cell phone, so I offered to let him use mine so he could call his wife. He later 'found' his cell phone....and though he had told both myself and the flight crew that he didn't have anyone picking him up...he answered his phone and I overheard him say to a man that he would be seeing him in 20 minutes.

The personnel at BWI did come to check on me a few times to make sure I was okay.

I don't know when the police were finally called. I sent a friend a text asking for help, and he called me so I might have an excuse to walk away. I had walked away some when this man came up to me, asked me if he could kiss me, hugged me very tightly, and told me that he loved me. My friend told me to tell this person to stand down, and I did. He thanked me for everything I had done, and headed towards the escalators towards the departure area at the airport. The police arrived, and I pointed them in his direction. A security officer walked with me away from the situation and gave me a suggestion as to where I could go in the furthest direction from where this guy had been and wait for my friend to pick me up from the airport.

It was only when I arrived home that I realized my pasties were still on the plane. I called Southwest's customer service, and they advised me that the luggage area was open until 1:30AM. I started calling at 1:20AM...but no one was answering the phone.

This morning, after having thought about the situation, I decided I want to press charges (I have a sprained wrist and bruises (faint), and my face still hurts from where the man hit me). I called the baggage area to find that they have my Trader Joe's bag there still, with my chocolate truffles from there, and my sweater. However, there was a note attached that the food in the bag had been thrown away. I asked the person there if he could stick that in the refrigerator until I could come down to get it. He was nice enough to say yes.

I called Southwest's customer service to get the name of the man who hit me so I could press charges, and was told that they only way I can get his name is if I subpoena the records from the complaint on the flight.

The first person I spoke to at their regular customer relations department (Stacy), said that she was a supervisor, and that I would have to write everything down and send it in, that she could not help me. I asked to speak with a different supervisor, and she asked me for my name and number so she could have a supervisor call me back before the end of the business day today.

I couldn't find an executive e-mail address for Southwest on Consumerist, so I called their public relations phone number, and their investor relations phone number. I was eventually put through to Mary Mortensen, who listened to my story, and asked me what I wanted. I told her I wanted to press charges, and that I was upset my food was thrown away, and that I wanted compensation for the food. I asked her if they could make arrangements to send the things that are at the airport to my residence. She advised me that I would have to write Southwest to advise them about what I wanted regarding compensation for the food, but that they will not give me this man's name to press charges unless I get an attorney and subpoena the incident report. I did ask her if they could send the things that were at the Baltimore airport to my residence so I wouldn't have to go back and get them.

What it comes down to is this. I can't press charges for assault because they will not give me his name. I don't remember his name because I was a bit in shock over what had happened. I thought given the gravity of the matter, that they would assist me so I might be able to press charges. How can I call the police and press charges against a man who's name I don't know?

What do I want? I want to be reimbursed for the pasties they threw away, and I want his name...so I can file assault charges. Perhaps wanting reimbursement for the pasties sounds silly to you...but I had just bought them a few hours before at Barb's in Clawson, Michigan...a place that makes pasties just as good as the ones you can buy in the Upper Peninsula (without the six hour drive). After everything I'd been through...I was looking forward to sharing one of them with a friend. I hadn't eaten one in over a year, I was *really* looking forward to them, and now it will be months before I can go back and buy some more to bring back here.

I hesitated initially about pressing charges, because I was giving this man the benefit of the doubt. I mean, what is he really is going over for a mission and was devastated that he might not come home to his 8 month old daughter? But then...I think about my sprained wrist, that I hurt from him twisting me about while I was restraining him, that my face still hurts from him hitting it, the slobbered kisses on my hand, and the attempts to grope me...his telling me repeatedly that he loved me...and everything else...and I am sorry...I can't be understanding of all that. Not when my face and wrist are throbbing.

[Leatherboy2006]

No legal expert here, but it seems if you filed a police report in Baltimore, they(the police) would have been able to supeona the airline for the name. Southwest was right it seems to not give you the name without a supeona. Unfortunity releasing personal information could open them up to other law suits. The subeona covers both of you and them if it goes to trail(ok to much Matlock and Perry Mason here/g/).
Since you were physically assulted you should have/had reporteded it right away. The longer you have waited the more it looks bad(I can hear Judge Judy now...screaming "and why did you wait if you were assulted...I would have been on the phone right away" you gotta love and hate her). At this point I would call Baltimore or even Detroit Police and ask their advice on how to procede legally.
Good Luck, sounds like you went through a lot

[jimworcs]

Sometimes in the heat of the moment, the judgements we make are not the same as the ones we would make in the cold light of day. In this case, you sound like a compassionate person who tried to help, and now on reflection it is clear that you were probably duped by this man and you are angry and upset about the incident. I think you probably know that this was not Southwest's fault, but wish their handling of the situation was a little better. However, I don't think this will be resolved by getting compensation for the pasties. I suspect they tried their best to do the right thing too and if you write to them, you may get some token gesture. Leatherboy is right though... I think that Southwest have a duty of confidentiality to their passengers and that even if they have sympathy with your situation, would not be able to release the information to anyone other than law enforcement or the courts. I would counsel you though to consider dropping this case... it is unlikely in my limited experience to lead to "justice"; and may prolong the anger by not resolving the way you would like it to do. I hope you can find solace in the knowledge that, whether he was genuine or not, your actions were well motivated, sincere and honourable and you did your best to help a fellow human being.