The following is a column by Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, copied completely without permission, etc.:
On the evening of June 26, as Southwest Flight 1226 neared the end of its 31/2 hour journey from St. Louis to Las Vegas, Dr. Sivaprasad Madduri, a 64-year-old urologist from Poplar Bluff, Mo., left his seat in the sixth row and began heading toward the front lavatory.
The captain was using the lavatory at the time, and a flight attendant told Madduri to return to his seat. When Madduri saw the captain leave the lavatory, he got up again. It is against FAA regulations to approach the cockpit when the cockpit is not secure. Madduri claims he did not know this. A spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines claims that two flight attendants explained the regulation to the doctor. At any rate, some pushing ensued. "She pushed me back into my seat," said Madduri. Yes, but that was only after he tried to force his way past her, the spokeswoman for Southwest said.
When the plane landed, two police officers came on board and escorted Madduri off the plane. He was turned over to the FBI. He was taken out of the airport in handcuffs, then taken to a detention center.
"The officers took mugshots and fingerprints, and I was ushered into a large jail cell," the slight physician later wrote in a letter he sent this newspaper and Southwest Airlines. "I looked around and there were already 43 inmates. All of them were young, abusive and using language I never heard of. There were small fold-down benches along the wall. Having no place even to sit, I spent half of my night standing."
In the morning, he was taken to federal court. He said a court-appointed attorney told him he could plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and pay a fine of $2,500. Or else he could plead not guilty and expect a protracted and costly legal fight that would almost certainly require multiple trips to Las Vegas. He pleaded guilty and eventually made his way to the meeting that had brought him to Las Vegas in the first place — the annual convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.
Was he a victim of racial profiling? Or over-zealous flight attendants? Or post-911 paranoia? Or were the problems mostly of his own doing? Or could it be a little bit of all of the above?
"I can tell you this, these types of cases are taken very seriously by the U.S. Attorney's office, particularly when you have somebody who is trying to force his way to the front of the airplane when the pilot is out of the cockpit and the cockpit door might have been open," said Ray Gattinella, the assistant U.S. Attorney who handled the case.
Well, yes, but if you believe the Southwest version of events, this is a 64-year-old guy who was unable to overpower a flight attendant. Should this really have been a federal case? Then again, rules are rules, and this particular regulation was put in for a reason.
"I didn't know about this law," Madduri told me.
Brandy King, the spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said flight attendants were required to explain the cockpit-door and front-galley regulations as part of the preflight announcements.
Yes, but many of us zone out during those announcements.
King said the flight attendant tried to explain the regulation to Madduri during the incident. The criminal complaint, filed by the FBI, makes mention of a second flight attendant who allegedly tried to explain the regulation to Madduri after he returned to his seat after his first effort to get to the lavatory. The complaint says the first flight attendant again tried to explain the regulation to Madduri when he made his second attempt. The complaint states that Madduri said, "I'm not listening to you."
Did the FBI talk to any of the other passengers? That would settle the argument. Sadly, the FBI office in Las Vegas did not return repeated phone calls.
"When they were leaving the plane, several passengers thanked the crew for the professional way they handled the situation," King said.
In a strange footnote, Madduri received a letter from Southwest Airlines several days after he returned to Poplar Bluff.
"Dear Sivaprasad Madduri: Sometimes an explanation for the reason why things happen isn't always possible, and the bizarre behavior of the individual during your June 26 flight to Las Vegas supports this point. While I'm unable to explain the circumstances surrounding the disruption, I think it's important to offer my heartfelt apologies for any concerns you may have had as a result of this event. Naturally, we don't want this experience to affect your feelings about flying with us in the future, or for it to be your last recollection of traveling with our Company.
"In fact, we would consider it a privilege if you gave us another opportunity to provide you with better memories. I am confident your next trips with Southwest Airlines will be more pleasant and to prove just that, I sent a LUV Voucher to every person (except, of course, the lady who caused the disruption) who was onboard your flight."
The letter was signed by Fred Taylor, a senior manager in Proactive Customer Service Communications. The LUV Voucher was a $100 certificate to be used against the costs of another flight.
Madduri said he thought the "lady who caused the disruption" was the flight attendant, and so the letter backed up his story. King said the person who wrote the letter simply got the gender wrong.
"We did not intend to send this letter to Mr. Madduri," she said.
Madduri said he wasn't sure he would use the certificate, anyway.
Alright, if you waded through all of that, good for you. I don't really know Dr. Madduri personally, but I know him by reputation, and he's generally pretty docile, almost meek.
As my mother said when she heard about this story, isn't this America? When did we start doing things like this to other Americans? The whole incident is nothing short of bizarre.
More to the point, though, the incident ought to make you concerned about the state of the country. Had Dr. Madduri been a 64-year-old white man, would things have gotten so far out of hand? Would he have spent a night in prison? Would he have been hauled into court and threatened with lengthy and costly legal proceedings if he didn't just bite the bullet and plead guilty?
I doubt it.
Furthermore, it seems that Madduri has not only a right but almost a moral obligation to sue Southwest. Situations like this are why lawsuits exits to begin with. Madduri would likely receive minimal redress, since what is done is done, but the amount of bad publicity for Southwest a lawsuit would cause would almost certainly prevent anything similar from happening in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
he assaulted a flight attendant, while the flight deck door was being opened....you get arrested for that no matter who you are. Also, the original charge was felony interference with a flight crew. Dr. Madduri is very lucky to have gotten off so easy. Bottom lined...if you are on an airplane you should listen to and follow the instructions of the flight crew.
Very lucky to have gotten off so easily when the whole thing sounds like the result of a misunderstanding? If I'm waiting in line to use the restroom, I'm not always the best at taking instruction, either. That doesn't mean I'm a threat.
"Assault" seems like a pretty strong word. All the column says is that "some pushing ensued." It seems fairly unclear about where it started, which is normal in situations like this. One way or the other, though, it seems like a lot of this could have been avoided had the flight crew used a little bit more good sense.
Assualt..?
Hahahaha.
My goodness. So this is what freedom is all about. Not being able to use a lavatory in the plane. And "assaulting a flight attendant"..please...
Just f..ing unbeleivable. I will never fly Southwest, period.
Old thread I realize, but the pushing from all the accounts I read, was the Flight Waitress pushing the passenger.
Perhaps these twits ought to get serving wages and work for tips. They may learn how to communicate w/ far more effectiveness and I might actually get the soda with time to drink it before approach.
The idiotic, power trips from the AARP members is why I fly as LITTLE as possible. 8 hour drive is faster, cheaper then a 2 hour flight by the time you factor in driving to/from airports and security lines. More relaxing then herded thru airport as well.
The man has been a citizen for a very long time; the people that come from around the Middle East are always being targeted. I remember when my father (who is 100% Bangali) got his shoe ripped open because he was "suspected" and no one replaced his shoes. He had to go the whole flight with ripped open shoes! What kind of freedom is that? I'm not saying that this guy is automatically correct, but I'm not surprised if the flight attendants involved are being just a tad bit biased.
Post a Comment