- Flight attendants blocked from ritzy Dodgers charter for not being ‘blond, blue-eyed’: lawsuit Fox Business
- New Lawsuit Claims United Airlines Chose ‘White, Young, Blond and Blue-Eyed’ Flight Attendants For LA Dodgers Charter Flights paddleyourownkanoo.com
- Flight attendants sue United for staffing charters with young, blonde women South China Morning Post
- Lawsuit claims LA Dodgers prefer white flight attendants SFGATE
- 2 United Flight Attendants Claim They Were Replaced With ‘Young, White, Thin’ Blondes For LA Dodgers Flights: Lawsuit Daily Caller
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Tag Archives: attendants
American Airlines flight attendants protest over hotel where colleague died – Business Insider
- American Airlines flight attendants protest over hotel where colleague died Business Insider
- “Gucci Gate” Roils Flight Attendants At American Airlines Live and Let’s Fly
- American Airlines Flight Attendants Doorsteps Senior Manager at Corporate HQ After He Refuses to Relocate Crew From Hotel Where Suspicious Death of Coworker Took Place paddleyourownkanoo.com
- American Airlines Tells Security: Look Out For Flight Attendants In Union T-Shirts View from the Wing
- American Airlines Flight Attendants Deliver Vote Of No Confidence To Senior Vice President Simple Flying
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Portable chargers recalled after fire hospitalizes four flight attendants on commercial flight – WRAL News
- Portable chargers recalled after fire hospitalizes four flight attendants on commercial flight WRAL News
- Company recalls 190,000 portable chargers following fire on plane Fox Business
- VRURC Portable Chargers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard; Sold Exclusively on Amazon.com by VRURC; Caught Fire on Commercial Flight Consumer Product Safety Commission
- Nearly 200000 portable chargers recalled after airplane fire — stop using this now Tom’s Guide
- Recall alert: 190K portable chargers sold exclusively through Amazon recalled WSB Atlanta
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Florida man took mushrooms before assaults on United flight attendants, affidavit says
Psilocybin can lead to hallucinations and paranoia, according to the National Institutes of Health, but some studies have documented potential mental health benefits. Several jurisdictions, including the state of Oregon and D.C., have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms, but they remain illegal under federal law, including on planes.
On the United flight to Dulles, Sevilla was seated in seat 29C, and the father and daughter seated next to him could tell he “wasn’t right,” according to the affidavit. About an hour into the flight, he grabbed the arm of the daughter, who was in seat 29B.
The father and daughter were moved to other seats, but Sevilla’s erratic behavior was just getting started, according to the affidavit. He soon began “running up and down the aisle, clapping loudly near the cockpit, and yelling obscenities,” Markley wrote. Sevilla opened a locked bathroom while another passenger was inside and broke a “small plastic piece” off the door, he added.
He was also “getting in other passengers’ faces — staring and smiling at them,” and refused flight attendants’ requests that he stay seated, instead lying down on the floor, according to the affidavit.
As flight attendants continued to ask him to take his seat, Sevilla jumped up and attacked one of them, “grabbing and twisting” her breast, Markley wrote. Other flight attendants and passengers, including a law enforcement officer who was on board, jumped in to help.
The law enforcement officer was able to get a handcuff around Sevilla’s right wrist, but he continued to fight, twisting a second flight attendant’s arm, according to the affidavit. Several people fought to subdue Sevilla, eventually getting the other handcuff around his left wrist.
The law enforcement officer and second flight attendant guarded Sevilla, who “continued to scream and yell incoherent things for the remainder of the flight,” Markley wrote. As a result of Sevilla’s actions, the flight attendant who was attacked was left with bruising on her chest and lasting pain, while the second flight attendant could not perform his normal duties for half the flight, he added.
During an interview several hours later, Sevilla admitted he consumed psilocybin, known as “magic” mushrooms, while at the airport in Miami. He told FBI agents that it was not the first time he had taken the drug, and apologized for his actions, acknowledging he was “not totally surprised that he acted this way after consuming it,” Markley wrote.
Sevilla was released on his own recognizance on Oct. 5, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday in Alexandria, Va., on charges of assault and interfering with a flight crew. His public defender, Shannon Quill, declined to comment, citing office policy.
United said in a statement that the airline appreciated its crew members “handling this difficult situation with professionalism” and that it followed up with the employees to make sure they were okay after the passenger was removed.
After a surge in the early years of the pandemic, unruly passenger incidents on flights have fallen in 2022, especially after the mask mandate for public transportation ended in April. Still, flight attendants continue to face violence from the flying public, most recently when a passenger punched an American Airlines flight attendant in the head on a flight to Los Angeles in September.
The Federal Aviation Administration has received 2,011 complaints of unruly passengers this year through Oct. 4, which have prompted 721 investigations and 487 enforcement actions, according to an agency database.
Flight Attendants Found Renting Illegal Apartment In East Boston Garage For Years – CBS Boston
EAST BOSTON (CBS) – Airline employees were found renting an illegal apartment in East Boston. Boston Inspectional Services say 12 people, all flight attendants, were living in the property on Geneva Street during their layovers.
“From my understanding they’ve been operating for about 10 years there, so they went under the radar for quite a while,” said Flavio Daveiga of Boston Inspectional Services. “They’re just using it as a resting point like refresh and then continuing on to their trips or their commute back to their home base.”
Beds found in illegal apartment on Geneva Street in East Boston (Image credit Boston Inspectional Services)
The building was a garage converted into an apartment. After receiving a complaint Tuesday, investigators found several violations inside, including illegal construction, missing smoke detectors and hazardous materials.
It is believed the people staying there paid $300 a month. Inspectional Services says it was actually a tenant living at the apartment who called to report the problems inside.
The property was deemed unfit so everyone staying there has been asked to leave. The landlord will now have to file permits with the city to make it a livable space before anyone’s allowed to move back in.
JetBlue urges flight attendants to accept assignments as it races to hire 700 people
JetBlue planes at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport
Leslie Josephs | CNBC
JetBlue Airways on Friday urged patience from its flight attendants as it races to hire hundreds of new employees before what it expects to be a monster travel season this spring and summer.
“Please do not refuse an assignment you are assigned to operate; it is disruptive to the operation, lets down your fellow Crewmembers, and disappoints our Customers who rely on us to safely get them to their destination,” Ed Baklor, head of customer care and programs, said in an email to flight attendants, which was seen by CNBC.
Travel demand snapped back faster than airlines had expected and they are now trying to hire thousands of workers to handle a surge in passengers this spring and summer.
Airline CEOs this and last week told investors that they expect that strong demand — and customers’ willingness to pay more for tickets — will help cover the recent surge in fuel prices.
“We are still unprofitable after two years and now face rising fuel prices and other inflationary pressures that make it challenging for everyone,” JetBlue’s Baklor wrote to crews. “With strong consumer demand and record hiring, we are anticipating a healthy summer. We will see the other side of this if we can count on your continued patience, partnership and teamwork along the way.”
JetBlue didn’t immediately comment, but CEO Robin Hayes told a JPMorgan conference last week that the industry is facing capacity constraints partly driven by staffing.
Baklor told crews that the airline is on track to hire 700 new pilots and flight attendants before the summer and that the carrier doesn’t want to simply hire for peak periods because it could mean overstaffing during seasonal lulls after the summer.
Last week, Alaska Airlines and the flight attendants’ union reached an agreement to offer double pay after flight attendants fly more than 100 trips per pay, a pay unit based on trip length, in each month through May.
Alaska Airlines flight attendants get double pay to pick up shifts
A Boeing 737-990operated by Alaska Airlines takes off from JFK Airport on August 24, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City.
Bruce Bennett | Getty Images
Alaska Airlines is offering flight attendants double pay to pick up extra trips this spring in hopes of avoiding staffing shortfalls ahead of an even bigger jump in travel demand in the coming months.
Airlines rolled out incentives such as bonuses and up to triple pay to pilots and flight attendants late last year to stem staffing shortfalls during the busy year-end holidays, but a wave of Covid omicron infections still sidelined crew members, contributing to thousands of flight cancellations.
Alaska’s offer shows the carrier is willing to pay crews more to avoid flight disruptions from staffing shortfalls, a problem that can quickly spread through an airline’s network.
“Like many other airlines, we are facing general staffing challenges,” Alaska said in a statement. “In response, we’re offering flight attendants pay incentives to fill gaps in staffing for a short period of time this Spring.”
The airline has recently hired and trained 165 new flight attendants and plans to bring 700 more on board this June. It had more than 5,500 flight attendants as of the end of 2021. Alaska is the fifth-largest U.S. carrier with more than 120 destinations in North America and hubs on the West Coast and in Alaska.
The Seattle-based airline approached the flight attendants’ union about the incentive pay, according to a note to cabin crews sent Friday.
American Airlines, which aims to hire some 18,000 people this year, and Southwest Airlines, which has targeted 8,000 new employees in 2022, said they aren’t currently offering similar incentives to Alaska’s.
Airline executives last week said travel demand has bounced back faster than they expected. In February, bookings and sales surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to Adobe data, and airport security screenings this week hit the highest since Thanksgiving.
They said they expect that trend to help offset a sharp rise in fuel prices this year, though some carriers, including Alaska, have trimmed their schedules in response to the higher costs. The airline, however, said it expects to be back to pre-Covid capacity by the summer.
Alaska executives will outline its plans for the coming year in an investor day on Thursday.
Spirit to double pay for flight attendants through Jan. 4
Spirit Airlines flight attendants will receive double play on any work through Jan.4, Reuters reported, as airline carriers struggling to keep their flight schedule intact due to mass cancellations caused largely by pandemic-fueled worker absences.
According to FlightAware.com, there have been over 8,000 flight cancellations over the past eight days.
“All flight attendants, regardless of how you have obtained your pairing, will be receiving 200% pay for any pairing that touches Dec. 28 through Jan. 4,” the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said in a statement.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union represents about 4,00 Spirit flight attendants, according to the airline’s latest filing.
Earlier this year, Florida-based Spirit Airlines had to cancel nearly 3,000 flights due to bad weather and staffing shortages, Reuters reported.
Major airlines including SkyWest Airlines, Alaska Air Group, and JetBlue Airways have all cited the spread of the omicron variant and weather as the reasons for the vast majority of delays and cancellations, Reuters noted.
Woman attacks Spirit Airlines flight attendants, gets restrained by passenger, records show
A woman reportedly attacked two flight attendants on a Spirit Airlines flight to Nashville on Saturday night, was restrained by a fellow passenger, and then yelled at police officers to “shoot me” when they arrested her, an arrest affidavit showed.
Airport police arrested a 42-year old female for public intoxication after the flight crew contacted officers on the ground at Nashville International Airport around 7 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The flight took off from Fort Lauderdale at about 6 p.m., according to Spirit Airlines spokesperson Nicole Aguiar and FlightAware, a flight tracking website.
When the plane arrived, members of the crew told officers that she attacked two flight attendants, punching one and pulling the other’s hair.
Aguiar did not comment on details in the affidavit but said law enforcement officers removed “a passenger for unruly behavior.”
Related: The holidays are here: Air travel queues up for biggest challenge yet
“We do not tolerate aggressive behavior of any kind, and this passenger is no longer welcome on any of our flights,” Aguiar said in an email.
Before the passenger deplaned, another passenger had restrained her feet with zip ties, the affidavit said. She smelled of alcohol, spoke in a slurred manner, and her eyes were bloodshot. She told officers she drank “a lot,” the affidavit said.
After police arrested her, she yelled at the officers on several occasions, using expletives and saying “I didn’t do anything wrong” and “shoot me,” according to the affidavit. The passenger also resisted getting into the police cruiser, including by stiffening her legs to prevent officers from closing the door.
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office jail logs show that she was admitted into jail on Saturday night at 8:40 p.m., but that she was released 6 a.m., Sunday.
“Thank you to our guests who assisted our crew and local law enforcement for their assistance,” Aguiar said in her email. “We will work with the relevant authorities to ensure this individual is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The affidavit said that the flight crew did not want to press charges against the passenger.
An email from Nashville International Airport spokesperson Kym Gerlock did not offer additional details beyond the information in the affidavit, but Gerlock said “the matter is under investigation.”
Reach Liam Adams at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Woman attacks Spirit Airlines flight attendants; arrested in Nashville
Frontier passenger taped to seat for allegedly groping flight attendants
A Frontier Airlines passenger was arrested for allegedly groping the breasts of two attendants and punching a third before being taped to his seat for the remainder of his flight from Philadelphia to Miami, per multiple reports.
The big picture: It’s been an unprecedented year for reports of unruly and violent airline passengers, with the Federal Aviation Administration dealing with hundreds of cases despite announcing in January a new “zero tolerance” policy.
- Many involve passengers who refuse to comply with pandemic face mask guidelines, but many others concern incidents of violence.
- The Association of Flight Attendants said in a statement that this latest incident involving a “drunk and irate passenger” who “verbally, physically, and sexually assaulted multiple members of the crew” was “one of the worst examples” of what flight attendants have faced in the past year.
Details: Miami-Dade County Police Department charged Maxwell Berry, 22, with three counts of battery following the incident on Saturday night.
- Frontier Airlines initially released a statement on Tuesday saying the flight attendants would be “relieved of flying” while the incident was investigated, per the New York Times. But the Association of Flight Attendants accused the airline of suspending the crew as “a knee-jerk reaction to a short video clip.”
What they’re saying: Frontier said in an emailed statement Tuesday night that it “maintains the utmost value, respect, concern and support for all of our flight attendants, including those who were assaulted on this flight.”
- “We are supporting the needs of these team members and are working with law enforcement to fully support the prosecution of the passenger involved,” the statement added. “The inflight crew members’ current paid leave status is in line with an event of this nature pending an investigation.”
Go deeper: In-flight tensions at historic high