(ZHE) For U.S. airlines’ public relations teams, April has been the cruelest month on record.
Less than two weeks after a 69-year-old doctor, David Dao, was hospitalized after Chicago aviation police dragged him from a United Airlines plane sparking international outrage and a public relations nightmare for the carrier, it is now American Airlines’ turn to be in the spotlight. The airline just suspended a male flight attendant after a video emerged showing him challenging a passenger to a fight after allegedly hitting a woman with a stroller during boarding.
The video, filmed before Flight 591 departed from San Francisco on Friday afternoon, shows the airline staff member goading a passenger and saying, ‘hit me.’
Facebook user Surain Adyanthaya, who recorded the incident, said he started filming after the flight attendant “violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby.” He added that “they just involuntarily escorted the mother and her kids off the flight and let the flight attendant back on, who tried to fight other passengers. The mom asked for an apology and the AA official declined.”
In his video, the woman with the child can be heard asking flight attendants for the stroller. A male passenger then walks towards the front of the plane and demands from the airline crew the name of the employee who took the stroller before he returns to his seat. Moments later, another American employee, who a spokeswoman confirmed was a flight attendant, enters the plane and the male passenger confronts him.
“You do that to me and I’ll knock you flat,” the passenger can be heard saying to the flight attendant.
The staff member responds by pointing his finger at the man and telling him to ‘stay out of it.’ The male passenger then steps closer to the employee, who challenges him to a fight.
http://www.anonews.co/american-airlines-employee/