Jet Blue Made Man Sit on Toilet During Flight

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A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.
Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan's Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to "go 'hang out' in the bathroom" about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the "jump seat" she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

Mutlu was traveling on a a "buddy pass," a standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends, from New York to San Diego on Feb. 16, and returned to New York on Feb. 23, the lawsuit said.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=2008-05-13_D90KOIE80&show_article=1&cat=breaking

I don't know what to think of this. From one point of view "you get what you pay for". From the other, I think that it was a humiliating thing to do to that person. If there was not enough room, he should not have been permitted to board in the first place.

Thirdly, what about the people who had to use the toilet? I know that there are more than one on a plane, but..........................

What do YOU think?

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I think the same thing you do Phoenix.

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I'm thinking there are some facts missing.
"

Quote:

"Plaintiff walked back to his seat embarrassed, humiliated, mortified, disgraced degraded and still shocked beyond belief."

."
that sounds like "whip-lash' law suit to me.

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I thought flight attendants sat in those little chairs for safety/security reasons.

Can the pilot leave the cockpit to tell someone anything?

Even if everything in the story is true wouldn't it have made more sense to move the man to the jump seat?

Something isn't right about this story.

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Seems to me that the flight attendant should have sucked it up and stayed in her seat.

Sitting in the can during take-off or landing would, of course, be in violation of FAA safety rules. If this happened as the guy claims JetBlue will be settling in ahurry.

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Why would the flight attendant sit there for 3 hours? Doesn't she have
to serve tea, coffee and so on?

Plus the plaintiff could have made them aware of the FAA safety rules,
and the impending lawsuit Very Happy

Honestly, who in their right mind, would sit for 3 hours in one of
those uncomfortable lavatories? I certainly would not!

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This story has the distinct smell of bullshit all over it.

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what a crappy thing to do

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Although I do agree with the overall theme of the story--that the airlines are satan's little helpers and the only industry I know that has people pay them to make their lives as miserable as possible.

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Did I mention my theory that the entire airline industry in the U.S. has recently moved past the point of "abysmal" and on into the "complete failure" zone?

It's time to scrap the whole thing and work on making faster trains.

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fishin wrote:

Seems to me that the flight attendant should have sucked it up and stayed in her seat.

Sitting in the can during take-off or landing would, of course, be in violation of FAA safety rules. If this happened as the guy claims JetBlue will be settling in ahurry.

The NY Post reported earlier:

Quote:

Mutlu says the bizarre incident 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 because a flight attendant was taking the last available seat, but was then told she would sit in the "jump seat" and he could have her seat, 2E, the suit says.

He was issued a boarding pass and took the seat, but got a rude awakening as he began to doze off about 90 minutes into the flight.

That's when the pilot called him "towards the front of the plane, towards the cockpit, and advised the plaintiff that he would have to give his seat up" to the flight attendant, the suit says.

"The plaintiff was puzzled and asked what was going on," the filing says.

The pilot told him the "flight attendant wanted to be more comfortable and that the 'jump seat' was not comfortable for her."

Mutlu "asked if he was being directed to surrender the seat issued to him and to take the 'jump seat' for the remaining part of the flight, which was about 3 ½ hours."

The pilot told him the jump seat was for "for personnel only," the suit says.

"Even more puzzled and perplexed, the plaintiff asked if the pilot was directing him to stand for the remaining part of the flight," it says.

The pilot said no - Mutlu should just "go and 'hang out' in the bathroom," the suit says. In the meantime, the stewardess took Mutlu's seat, "closed her eyes and pretended to sleep."

When Mutlu began to argue, the pilot "became angry at the plaintiff's reluctance to go . . . to take his place in the rest room and took a much harsher tone with the plaintiff, advising him that he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command, and that the plaintiff should be grateful for being onboard," the suit says.

Mutlu says he was "imprisoned" in the bathroom for hours, which "seemed like an eternity."

He was ordered back to his seat when the plane ran into heavy turbulence, the suit says.

"Plaintiff walked back to his seat embarrassed, humiliated, mortified, disgraced degraded and still shocked beyond belief," and tried "to cover his face" as he walked up the aisle, the papers say.

The flight landed at JFK around 5:30 am, and the pilot stopped him as he was walking out "and asked if everything was okay. The plaintiff replied, 'No,'" the suit says. The suit seeks money for emotional damages.

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Yup, he'll get some cash for that one and it'll be well deserved.

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If she needed that seat for a nap, those flight attendents have one powerful union. I would have thought the jump seat was part of the job, at least for takeoff and landing. Ah, that's probably why he had the seat at those particular times, and explains why the jump seats were for personnel only.

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It's wrong to give him the seat at first,
and later on have the pilot intimidate him to the point that there
would be repercussions if he didn't comply.

That pilot should lose his license if he's that combative with passengers.

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CalamityJane wrote:

It's wrong to give him the seat at first,
and later on have the pilot intimidate him to the point that there
would be repercussions if he didn't comply.

That pilot should lose his license if he's that combative with passengers.

The passenger in question - flying on a friend's freebie pass - was the combative one, not the pilot. The pilot had the legal right to place this passenger anywhere on the aircraft he wanted - in restraints, if deemed necessary.

This freebie-flier deserves to have his suit thrown out of court.

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Quote:

When Mutlu began to argue, the pilot "became angry at the plaintiff's reluctance to go . . . to take his place in the rest room and took a much harsher tone with the plaintiff, advising him that he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command, and that the plaintiff should be grateful for being onboard," the suit says.

And that (from Walter's post top of this page) is EXACTLY right!

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So High Seas you're telling us that this is perfectly legitimate, that a
passenger with a valid boarding pass for an assigned seat can be ordered
to the lavatories if this particular seat is in demand by a flight attendant?

Which airlines are you with, again?

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high seas wrote :

Quote:

The passenger in question - flying on a friend's freebie pass - was the combative one, not the pilot. The pilot had the legal right to place this passenger anywhere on the aircraft he wanted - in restraints, if deemed necessary.

This freebie-flier deserves to have his suit thrown out of court.

i wonder if high seas is a pilot with that particular airline ?
once you've been assigned a seat , i doubt that the pilot should have any right to order a passenger to spend a few hours in the washroom - barring some emergencency situation - which this clesrly was not .

when we were flying to santiago de chile two years ago , a woman sitting across the isle from us became unconscious . a doctor and a nurse - who were passengers - started to revive her .
she later told us that she was on heart-medication and had been told by her doctor NOT to drink any alcohol . "i figured that a couple of glasses of wine wouldn't do any harm " , she told us with a smile !
we were prepared to fly the rest of the way with a body strapped into the adjacent seat Shocked

- we were not amused .
hbg

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hamburger wrote:

high seas wrote :

Quote:
The passenger in question - flying on a friend's freebie pass - was the combative one, not the pilot. The pilot had the legal right to place this passenger anywhere on the aircraft he wanted - in restraints, if deemed necessary.

This freebie-flier deserves to have his suit thrown out of court.

i wonder if high seas is a pilot with that particular airline ?
once you've been assigned a seat , i doubt that the pilot should have any right to order a passenger to spend a few hours in the washroom - barring some emergencency situation - which this clesrly was not .

..........
hbg

Hamburger - certainly the pilot-in-command has every right to order anyone he likes to anyplace in the aircraft. It's a right analogous to that of a captain on a sea-going vessel.

I do have a pilot's license, but not commercial i.e. not with any airline. However the rule I just mentioned is valid everywhere, not only in the U.S., for both commercial and private aircraft (FAA rules) as well as military, of course. It is surprising to me that educated persons like you and Jane weren't aware of it.

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Jet Blue Made Man Sit on Toilet During Flight

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