New Civil Case

I am preparing to file another interesting civil case. This one is against Southwest Airlines. A couple of months ago, a woman flying from Florida to California had to change planes in Nashville. As she got onto the plane, she was accosted by a flight attendant who commanded her to turn her cell phone off (this began while the plane was still at the gate). She finished sending a text message to the person who was to pick her up in California and turned off the phone.

The flight attendant then wouldn't leave it alone. He continued to escalate the conversation until it turned into a confrontation. At some point, the plane pushed away from the gate. The flight attendant then told the woman that he would have her thrown off the plane (which he did). She was arrested for disorderly conduct, but the charges were retired by the District Attorney in Davidson County.

The flight attendant involved basically caused the entire problem. The woman complied with his request to turn off the phone and, when he said he didn't believe her, offered to let him examine the phone. His reply was that the plane was equipped with "laser beams" that detected that her phone was on.

The woman was later allowed on another Southwest flight to California.

As we all have heard, Southwest seems to be plagued with incidents of this type. I recall a young woman a year or so ago who was thrown off a plane because a flight attendant didn't like the way she was dressed. It seems like there was another incident, too. I will have to research that.

You would think that Southwest would do a better job of training its attendants. It will be an interesting case to try.

~Tim