A vicious catfight between flight attendants onboard an American Airlines flight has led one FA to sue her employer for failing to investigate.
Flight Attendant Kathy Ida Wolfe is suing American, her employer, for:
- negligence
- dangerous work environment
- breach of contract
- assault
- battery
According to the Dallas Morning News,
Kathy Ida Wolfe claims in her lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, that Laura Powers “maliciously dug her fingernails into my arm, and slammed the door of a beverage cart on my arm” during the June 2016 flight.
Wolfe said Powers, 56, of Flower Mound, then “grabbed my scarf, choking me, and dragged me in the aisle and in front of the passengers,” according to the lawsuit.
She claims that she immediately reported the incident to the captain, flight service manager, and fellow flight attendants. On the ground, she reported the incident to her supervisor. But apparently an investigation never took place, at least not to Wolfe’s liking. She eventually reported the incident to law enforcement authorities as well before filing suit.
American was (wisely) tight-lipped about the incident, issuing only a brief statement:
American strives to create a work environment in which all team members feel safe and respected.
At the same time, American’s reply to her lawsuit essentially argued that it takes two to tango and that it is therefore “not liable because Plaintiff caused or contributed to cause the harm for which recovery of damages is sought.”
CONCLUSION
Mark this issue as developing. I suspect American would not have filed the answer they did without due diligence. And logically, why would anyone suddenly dig their fingernails into your arm then slam a beverage cart into you, grab your scarf in an attempt to choke you, then drag you down the aisle in front of passengers…unless you did something to provoke it?
Why are you writing about this?
where you forced to click and read?
I thought I would find an embedded link to cellphone video of the catfight.
@Mark: because I find it interesting.
Why would they do that, unless she provoked it? I’m sorry Matthew, but that comment is disgusting. The answer to your question is simple: because there are angry people in this world who need to vent their frustrations on defenseless creatures, and she probably thought her colleague was a defenseless creature. Its completely and utterly inexcusable, provoked or not, so much that I don’t think that you’re in the right to ever say such a thing.
Or, Alan, you could hop off your high horse and familiarize yourself with the concept of self-defense.
The people who are most eager to sue seem to provoke it most often. If the alleged victim had iust done the same thing to the alleged assailant, is proportionality in response wrong?
Want to get the other side of the story before condemning everyone else or nah? I’d guess that’s not important to you based on your use of “probably” when you quite literally have no clue what she was thinking.
Nice generalizations though, as per usual!
Alan, sorry to disappoint you. Perhaps I have just been sheltered, but I have never seen an incident where someone was just attacked out of the blue. Don’t you think that words were exchanged or something was done to make this FA fly of the handle? It is just speculation, but why would a FA endanger her career for fun or just to be vicious?
Matthew, sorry to disappoint you but I myself have been the victim of workplace violence. I was verbally assaulted in front of customers at the restaurant that I had worked at for four years by a fairly new employee, when I didn’t “take the bait” and decided to walk away from her she grabbed me by my hair and took me to the ground. Only then did anyone step in to help me which was my manager who knew that I have a very extensive spinal fusion which was easily aggravated by the slightest of wrong movements, let alone a physical assault. To this day I have no idea why she had such a grievance against me, my manager could not get a straight answer from her as to why she started verbally accosting me in the first place. She was fired but the damage was done and I ended up quitting soon after as I no longer felt safe there. To reiterate my point, I did not do anything to her to deserve the verbal and physical abuse that I suffered. Workplace violence is becoming an increasing issue in the United States and for you to assume that this flight attendant did something to deserve physical abuse is just unbelievable to me. I hope you have a change of attitude sir.
If this was as she explained it and done “in front of passengers”, why did none of THEM step in, or at the very least say something afterwards? We’re supposed to believe that there was this huge brawl among the flight crew and nobody even said a word after or took video?
As for American’s response, that’s pretty standard PR…
Because the gov has forced bystanders to not intervene for fear of being liable… what if in breaking them up, I accidentally brushed her chest with my hand? See how sue happy she is? Now I’m getting sued and put on a predator list.
Nobody would sue if that happened while you were trying to break them up. You sound like one of boy-will-be-boys apologists.
I do believe he could have been sued, if that happened trying to break them up. Who is to day he wouldn’t be sued. Why take the chance.
If the airline’s investigation reached the conclusion that both parties committed assault and battery,how come no disciplinary action was issued to both employees? Any suspension,mandatory anger management training,legal department generated documentation to limit employer’s liability?
“Vicious catfight”? How sexist.
Also, I’m surprised nobody documented this on their cell phones.
Well, nails *were* allegedly used for scratching…
Cats are both genders, no?
Aaron, was not intending to be sexist. As JAXBA pointed out, I was more describing the nature of the altercation than the gender of the participants.
I must have missed the part where her employer assaulted her.
Did this make news in any other context?
I am also amazed that this in-flight brawl was not reported by passengers…
That’s a good point – this did not make its way to Twitter or YouTube or Facebook. The complaint itself is behind paywall, but there does not appear to be any passenger eyewitnesses.
A couple of trolley dollies going at each other in front of passengers? Of course this story should be covered on travel blogs. I liked the bit about one trying to throttle the other with her scarf, although better if it happened after service was completed.
Probably ought to switch to Delta! lol
I’ll be in the hanger.
Was she or they fired ?…..the rest of the story would be interesting to know about, yes ?