JetLoo wrote:
> http://www.nypost.com/seven/05132008/news/regionalnews/airline_sat_me_on_can_110626.htm
> AIRLINE SAT ME ON CAN
> $2M SUIT VS. JETBLUE
>
> By DAREH GREGORIAN
>
> May 13, 2008 -- A JetBlue pilot forced a Manhattan man to sit on the
> toilet for three hours during a cross-country flight to free up his
> seat for a stewardess, the flush-with-fury passenger charges in a $2
> million lawsuit filed yesterday.
>
> Gokhan Mutlu claims the experience made him feel like a first-class
> loo-ser - and his Manhattan Supreme Court suit says that he suffered
> "emotional and psychological trauma" and that the JetBlue crew
> "publicly . . . humiliated and dishonored" him.
>
> "In the middle of the flight, the pilot told me to go to the bathroom
> and have a seat," Mutlu told The Post from his home in upper Manhattan
> last night.
>
> "I guess the flight was overbooked, and I didn't want to make a big
> deal in front of the other passengers, so I just had a seat. "I don't
> feel good. I was humiliated."
>
> Mutlu says the can-finement happened Feb. 23, when he was a standby
> passenger for a flight from San Diego to New York.
>
> He was told the flight was full, but a stewardess told him that he
> could take her assigned seat and that she would sit in the "jump
> seat," said his lawyer, Zafer Akin.
>
> Mutlu was issued a boarding pass and took Seat 2E, but got a rude
> awakening as he dozed off about 90 minutes into the red-eye flight, he
> claims.
>
> The pilot called him to the front and "advised the plaintiff that he
> would have to give his seat up" to the flight attendant, the suit
> says.
>
> The pilot told him the "flight attendant wanted to be more comfortable
> and that the 'jump seat' was not comfortable for her."
>
> A stunned Mutlu asked whether that meant he was supposed to sit in the
> jump seat for the rest of the five-hour flight, but the pilot told him
> that would be against regulations, Akin said.
>
> The pilot told him to "hang out" in the bathroom," the suit says,
> adding the stewardess took Mutlu's seat, "closed her eyes and
> pretended to sleep.
>
> When Mutlu argued, the pilot advised him that "this was his plane,
> under his command, and that [he] should be grateful for being
> onboard," the suit says.
>
> "The plaintiff walked to the back of the plane, trying to hide and
> cover his face," and "stepped into the bathroom, closed the door and
> locked it," the suit says.
>
> Soon after, the plane ran into turbulence. While other passengers were
> ordered to buckle up, Mutlu was "sitting on a toilet stool with no
> seat belts," the suit claims.
>
> "He was looking for things to hold on to," Akin said.
>
>
> After landing, the suit says, the pilot asked Mutlu "if everything was
> OK."
>
>
> "The pilot said, 'I don't think you appreciate what I did for you.' My
> client said, 'You locked me in the bathroom,' " Akin said.
>
> "I brought you home," the pilot countered.
>
> Akin said his client would have been happy to wait for a later flight,
> and probably wouldn't have sued had the crew let him sit in the jump
> seat.
>
> JetBlue said it doesn't comment on pending litigation.
>
>
I for one will be VERY surprised if this story turns out to be as this
person claims it happened.
--
Dudley Henriques |
