US “TYRANNICAL” AIRWAYS

            It’s a shame that flying to get anywhere these days is extremely stressful.  Forget the fact that you’ll be hundreds of miles up in the air and possibly dealing with turbulence that may make you wish you had a parachute packed in your carry-on luggage.  Let’s forget for a moment you have to get either radiated or molested just to get to the plane.  The flying public then has to deal with airline employees who have studied at the Suppressive Dictator School of Airline Passenger Harassment.

            I don’t know how many people fly US Airways and have no complaints.  I’m not one of them.  I’ve experienced employees at that airline I believe must saw and file the horns on their heads before they go to work.  I would not be surprised if some of them can make their heads turn completely around and speak in a deep voice while making disparaging comments about your deceased relative’s sex life.  I think I stopped using the airline when my flight was delayed with the promise of easy reconnect flights upon arrival to the first destination.  Once the plane landed the US Airways employees had no idea people on a plane arriving hours late might have missed their connecting flights.  We passengers were treated like an inconvenience by the US Airways employees.  They had important things to do like listen to the radio and talk on the phone to their families.  Who were we to ask them to work?  This of course is nothing compared to what a Miami photographer experienced during her flight on US Airways.

            It appears a photographer from Miami named Sandy DeWitt felt a US Airways employee was being rude to several passengers in the gate area.  I’m not surprised.  I’ve always just assumed that snarky, sarcastic comments are required to be given to all passengers on US Airways flights.  Ms. DeWitt had this misconception passengers are actually paying customers and felt US Airways should treat them with respect.  I can only assume it was her first trip on US Airways.  She then decided to take a picture of the rude US Airways employee’s name tag.  Ms. DeWitt was going to complain about the worker’s behavior.

All I can say is from my past experience with this airline I believe they would’ve probably just respond by saying “Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, so what do you want us to do?  If you don’t like it use another airline, oh that’s right, we’re it in some cities.  Oh, well, too bad.”

The fun part started when Ms. DeWitt was seated on the plane.  The photographed rude employee referred to as Tonialla G. went into the airplane and demanded that Ms. Dewitt show her the photograph taken of her with a cell phone.  Ms. DeWitt took out her cell phone, showed to rude employee Tonialla G and pointed out the photo was too dark to use.  Rude employee Tonialla G, who probably graduated the Suppressive Dictator School of Airline Passenger Harassment first in her class, wasn’t satisfied.  She walked into the cockpit of the plane and informed the plane’s captain paying customer Sandy DeWitt was a “security risk.”

I know the pilot worked for US Airways but I wonder if he took the time to ask why DeWitt was an alleged security risk.

“We have a passenger who is a security risk.”

“Why is she a security risk?”

“She took a picture of me with her cell phone and planned to complain about my rude behavior toward passengers to the airlines.  She showed me the picture and then deleted it”

“Were you rude to the passengers?”

“Of course, you know that’s our policy.”

“Then why is she a security risk if she deleted the picture?”

“The woman’s a photographer.  She could’ve given me time to do my hair and present a smile.  She could’ve used something better than just a cell phone.  She risks the security of an unflattering image being taken of me.”

“Oh.”

(For people who work at US Airways the following is something called sarcasm and for the record I’m holding my cell phone and taking pictures as I’m typing this.)  It’s obvious at US Airways cell phone wielding passengers willing to take pictures of employees name tags will not be tolerated.  I’m sure many planes have almost been taken down by a cell phone picture of an airline employee’s name tag.  Such a picture could fall into the wrong hand and then we’d have unwanted cell phone pictures just destroying the entire airline industry. 

Sandy DeWitt was actually escorted off the plane by two flight attendants as her husband followed.  I suppose if you have such a serious security threat you’ve got to send in your tougher-than-nails flight attendants to deal with such a frightening situation.  Maybe the US Airways flight attendant SWAT Team was busy that day.

As she was being led away she told the other passengers she was being taken off the plane for taking a picture and she felt photography was not a crime.  Should I have been there I would’ve taken out my cell phone and started taking pictures of everybody and everything.  I probably would’ve had the video going just to upset them.

After being removed from the US Airways flight for taking a picture with her cell phone and being labeled a security risk DeWitt spoke with a US Airways manager.  What was the manager’s response to this situation?  This person confirmed she was labeled as a security risk and directed her to another airline.  Who could argue with this person’s logic?  You may be a security risk and want to fly with a lethal picture-taking cell phone but it’s okay as long as you’re not using our airline.  Did they recruit this manager from a school for the terminally idiotic?

Airline travel has gone from bad to worse and is now just plain awful.  I think this story is best put into perspective by the old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

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