08-18-2018
08:45 AM
2 Loves
@Angrycustomer88, not reboarding the plane is an FAA policy, not a Southwest policy. Though I do not agree with the flight attendant’s methods, she was attempting to enforce policies that the federal government set up for everyone’s flying safety. Just like locks on the cockpit door, the federal government concluded that if people could get back on, they might leave something aboard that could be dangerous (even though I would argue that they were screened in the first place so how?). But I do not know how secure the outer doors on the jetway are. The airline has to enforce FAA safety standards, so even though she was overly aggressive, she is required to assume you had been trying to do something bad to the plane and that you did not care about anyone getting in your way. I remember when the FAA required a pat down of any passengers flying on a one way ticket after 2001 because a suicidal terrorist would not pay for a round trip ticket. I was relieved when they changed that policy, but I grudgingly complied knowing that someone deemed that it was for everyone’s safety, and I knew complaints to the agent doing the patdown were not the proper channel to voice disagreement. I know the experience was bad, but remembering that the people who did the bombings did not even care about their own lives is the reason for the aggression. Terrorists are not reasonable people so the attendants are trained for that potential situation to enforce the rules assuming that the offender is unreasonable. It is similar to joking about guns in the TSA line. They can haul off a person and lock them up for a time just for what seems like an exercise of free speech, but jokes are not appropriate in every situation, and those folks are working toward our safety. I hate that the 99.5% have to toe the line because 0.5% want to do harm, but unfortunately the 0.5% operate completely different from the average Joe or Jane and people charged with law enforcement have to be prepared mentally. Someone will argue that the airlines at times have to empty a plane and then reboard it, but in those situations, the gate agent handles the boarding process and everyone has to have a boarding pass. That process falls under a different process that a random person walking down a jetway toward the plane. I even have seen gate agents start then stop the boarding process announcing that the flight attendants were not ready so they may be deemed the decision makers as to who gets on board when. again, I am sorry this happened to you in this manner,
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