A passenger who “jokingly” inquired whether the pilots had checked for sobriety was pulled off the plane by America West. Reuters story here.
I hope she sues the bastards. I don’t know how much actual damages she can establish for being delayed, but if I were on a jury, I’d lay on all the punitive damages I could.
A week after they fire two pilots, I think it’s a legitimate question, “joking” or not.
Make that, “whether the pilots had been checked for sobriety…”
Wow, thats kinda silly. As mentioned in the OP, it is certainly a legitimate question to ask in light of recent events.
I have to examine a quote from spokeswoman Nowak as she says “While this passenger may have been joking it is difficult to determine if someone is joking or serious. We take any comment regarding safety seriously,” in reference to the removal of the passenger. How on earth does removing a single passenger from a plane (which could possibly crash in the event that the pilots were indeed drunk) full of people display a serious regard for safety? It seems that it would be necessary to actually verify the sobriety of the pilots in order to display a serious regard for safety wouldn’t it? Granted, giving the flight crew a breathalizer test as part of the preflight routine in front of the passengers would probably be uncalled for, but I don’t see how kicking the woman off the plane benefitted anyone’s safety. (Unless of course they were worried about a disgruntled flight attendant episode ala’ the post office.)
Hmmm… back in the Age of Normalcy (over 10 months ago) there had been a trend, in response to a perceived epidemic of “Air Rage”, of airlines adopting a harder line with disruptive passengers… which I supported, but wondered how soon the corporate types would extend from the truly disruptive to include the simply obnoxious or even the ones that they saw as too much hassle. I suppose that we have here a resurgence of that, combined with the less tolerant post-September attitude.
As to what the security threat would be, my hypotheses: Either AW sees a risk that the wise-ass comment MAY at some point become disruptive (i.e., “Now she’s joking. But how do we know that if turbulence happens, persons within earshot who may not themselves get the joke, will not become hysterical”); OR they are taking a hard-line on ANYTHING percevied as leading passengers to question the crew’s authority and lose their awe of them – and then how will they maintain order if a problem does arise (“We don’t need to put on no stinkin’ seatbelt, Jack-Daniel-breath! And no, I will not stop groping the FA, you just want her to yerself in the cockpit!”.)
I think it’s a reach under either explanation, and using the “security” argument to punish her for just being a smart-aleck is just a convenient-to-the-times cover.
/travel guru hat ON/
The only thing that I can think of would be that there could be the possibility that the passenger could incite the other passengers. She sets in motion a number of possibilities the outcome of which she could not possibly know. Could her fellow passengers shrug off her comments as fun -OR- could they be moved to demand that they be let off the plane unless they can be assured of the pilot’s sobriety. The latter possibly leading to the possibility of an uncontrollable passenger crowd on the plane and endangering the safety of all aboard.
Granted, this is a worst-case scenario, but with the recent bad press that America West has suffered recently, they acted in (what they perceived to be) the best interests of passenger safety, not to mention their OWN best interests.
I’ve long been a proponent that the passenger has a responsibility to himself to help insure that the trip is a safe one,(read the placards, pay attention during announcements, know where the exits are, report intoxicated passengers to the flight attendants, etc) but to be punished in such an extreme manner for, what most people would believe to be, an honest question just doesn’t seem right.
I think that the best thing to do at the time would be to have someone from the flight deck come and speak to her personally and calm her fears. At the moment she asked that question, no one could have been sure that she was joking or if she was serious.
On a more extreme note…
Should pilots (or ANY of the crew) have to take a breathalyzer test before boarding? Or for that matter, a urine or saliva test to insure that no other illicit drugs, alcohol or stimulants are being used? How about random suprise testing? At the beginning of each shift? And what of the new security forces that are in place? Or the Air Traffic Controllers? The guys that direct the aircraft into their gates? Should they be held to those same rules? Would that make the travelling public feel safer? The passengers are scrutinized every time they pass through a portal of some sort while in an airport. Shouldn’t we expect the same, if not greater, level of scrutiny for the people who ultimately (literally!) hold the safety of those passengers in their hands?
I don’t have all the answers… just a lot of questions.
/travel guru hat OFF/
The pilot could step into the cabin, close his eyes and touch his nose.
Everybody snickers and they take off.
And if he misses? 
–Balance, to whom the very idea of flying daily implies that someone has been drinking.