Darkwing wrote:
> "Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
> news:O7ydndbFlvNyOLTVnZ2dnUVZ_q7inZ2d@rcn.net...
>> 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
>
> Be interesting what the airline says, the truth will be somewhere in the
> middle I'm sure. I'm not a "sue happy" person and think most lawsuits are
> frivolous bullshit but in this case I think I'd talk to a lawyer too.
>
>
I'm having a lot of trouble rectifying a line pilot doing to a pax what
this guy says was done to him. Pilots are fully aware of the potential
for lawsuit and usually quite up on this kind of thing.
I have no way of knowing of course, but my guess is that the
circumstances surrounding this incident started out as a simple request
and then ended up where it is now based on either misunderstanding or
misrepresentation of the facts by this pax.
I could be way off of course, but as I said, it would amaze me to
discover that a working line pilot openly did to a pax what this guy
says happened to him.
My guess is leaning heavily toward the pax seeing a golden opportunity
for some quick cash and a sleezy lawyer helping him get it.
--
Dudley Henriques |
