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Don't Overbook
I was standing in the jetway near the end of the boarding process when a middle aged man came storming down the jetway ranting: “Don’t Overbook, Don’t overbook”. I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, but there was a gate agent timidly following him. The passenger stormed into the airplane yelling all the way. I followed and gave the Lead Flight Attendant a questioning look. She proceeded to follow the passenger as he made his way back to Coach. The passenger stopped at the First Class curtain and dropped his carry-on on the Lead’s foot. She hobbled back to the forward galley. Meanwhile the passenger threw his hang-up bag at me and charged off to his seat. Trying to keep this as peaceful as possible, I hung up the bag in the coat closet then picked up a pair of pants that had fallen out. Explaining what little I knew to the Lead, I asked her to take the pants back to the passenger and give me her assessment. She took the pants back to the passenger and gave them to him explaining what had happened. In my mind this was his last chance to settle down before we took action. The passenger threw the pants back in her face, and she came forward drawing her index finger across her throat. No words were necessary. I called Security and had the passenger thrown off. Turns out the man was a doctor and had been told by the gate agent that he didn’t have a seat assignment when he showed up at the counter. That set the man off, and he had been yelling and screaming in the departure lounge. He settled down a bit when a seat assignment was finally provided but started up again when he walked down the jetway. After an otherwise uneventful flight to FLL, I called the gate back in CLT to ask about the outcome after we had left. The Gate Agent said that she overheard the doctor talking on the phone to his brother explaining that he had just been thrown off the second airplane that day. You would have thought that he had learned to keep his mouth shut.
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USAirways - B-737-300 Captain - Early 90's
| 2/21/2004
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