Flight Training - November/December 2022 - 48

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ONE OF THE PITFALLS OF FLYING FOR
passenger airlines is dealing with customer
issues. These can be as simple as
handling a minor medical incident, or it
can escalate to a full-blown aerial melee
with injuries to other passengers and/
or crew requiring an in-flight diversion.
During the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic,
mask policies and social-distancing
guidelines brought out some of society's
worst behavior. While I never had any
incidents that would have been evening-newsworthy,
there were a couple of
incidents on my airplane that were tense.
On one flight, not long after the federal
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government mandated mask use, I got a
call from a flight attendant regarding a
passenger who refused to wear his mask.
Passengers around the unmasked person
were complaining and felt uncomfortable.
The key, however, was that the unmasked
passenger was a teen with Down syndrome.
He was traveling with his parents
who were unable to convince their son to
keep the mask on.
48 FLIGHT TRAINING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
During this time, mask noncompliance
was a common issue. It seemed like I was
making my " mask-compliance PA " a halfdozen
times during a four-day trip. While
it sounded like the proverbial " don't-makeme-turn-this-car-around "
lecture from
Dad, it often helped defuse the situation.
In this case, however, it did not. Those
who felt uncomfortable were still not
satisfied, and the more the parents of the
teen tried, the more belligerent he became,
leading him to yell and further aggravate
the potential spread of the virus.
I talked it over with my crew and
warned them that the only place this
would lead to was a diversion to have
the passenger removed. While the flight
attendants and I were seriously considering
this option, my first officer came
to the realization that if we diverted and
removed a disabled passenger-possibly
by force-we could very well be the subject
of a national news story, including
all the drama and misinformation that
comes with it.
ALEX WILLIAMSON
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Flight Training - November/December 2022

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