Friday morning, video captured four representatives of Spirit Airlines attacking a man at a check-in counter at Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall International Airport.
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Brawl At Spirit Airlines Check-In Counter In BWI
Amateur video submitted to TMZ taken at Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall International Airport showed a brawl between five men apparently taken at the check-in counter for Spirit Airlines.
The video starts as a man, presumably a passenger or friend or relative of a passenger, approaches the counter and several Spirit staffers with fists up, ready to fight. Four men responded by attacking the man and taking him to the ground, several of them clearly had badges around their necks, and at least two of them were in Spirit Airlines polo shirts. At least one of the staffers kicked the man well after the [customer] was subdued on the ground.
Once the [passenger] was on the ground, the attack continued from the uniformed staffers.
According to TMZ, authorities arrived on the scene and reported one man was slightly injured.
Is It Ever Self-Defense?
Based on this video, we don’t know what precipitated the confrontation. Without a doubt, words were exchanged before the non-Spirit staffer put his fists up first and approached the men working behind the counter. And though the man might have said he was going to attack them, ultimately, the staff members swung first.
I don’t think it can ever truly be self-defense if you swing first in a fistfight. I also think that as long as you’re wearing a uniform and acting in a professional capacity, there’s a greater duty to resist physical confrontation though that doesn’t mean allowing a customer to attack you either.
There’s no self-defense when it’s four-on-one against an unarmed man either.
Not Employees
In a statement to TMZ, Spirit was quick to point out that the uniformed staff members were employees of a third-party contractor and not direct employees.
“Meanwhile, a rep for Spirit tells us four employees of a third-party service they use have been suspended by that company pending an investigation into the brawl. Spirit says they do not directly employ the individuals.
The airline adds violence of any kind is not tolerated, and they plan to take appropriate action following the completed investigation.” – TMZ
As a business owner, I can understand the limited ability to control a third party and its staff members. However, Spirit also engages that company and its employees to represent the airline rather than hiring local staff members directly. If they are wearing your uniform, they are making money, they are using your systems, and acting as agents of your business – the differentiation between direct and third-party employees is moot.
That said, even direct employees can behave erratically for which the company can’t truly be held responsible.
CONCLUSION
I’d love to see the video before fists started flying to understand just what was said and how the situation began. It doesn’t really matter who said what to whom or that the man on the customer side of the counter put his fists up first, that doesn’t excuse a four-on-one brawl while you’re in a uniform working for a company. And it never permits you to kick the other person once they are on the ground and no longer fighting back. It’s a terrible look for those men, for the city of Baltimore, and for Spirit, but only the men who attacked are truly responsible for their actions.
What do you think?
image: TMZ/YouTube
Stay classy Spirit.
They were merely discussing their favourite rap stars .
Spirit gates at BWI are right next to UA so you can get in some good people watching without flying Spirit
Spirit Airlines [x]
Baltimore [x]
lol
I still want to try Spirit (the routes never work for places I want to go to)
If all airlines did this it would cut way down on air rage.
Aaaah Spirit … the “Jerry Springer” for America’s low cost carriers
If someone says they’re gonna harm you and raises a hand to harm you, why would you wait until they harm you to react? That’s an absurd suggestion in my opinion. Now once he’s nullified as a threat you don’t engage. That was wrong. Defending to stop an obvious attack is a fundamental right of all living beings. Down to bacteria.
But four on one?
Yeah, who do they think they are, the police?!
There’s no self defense if you attack someone backing away from you, no matter what they say.
There’s no self defense if you attack someone backing away from you, no matter what they say to you.
It seems very pennywise and pound foolish for airlines to try and save money on using third party reps in a passenger facing role. No one is going to care that the paychecks came from a contractor and not Spirit. The headlines (and public perception) will show Spirit employees engaged in the brawl.
Perception doesn’t really affect the bottom line. Getting sued for the actions of your lowest-paid employees does, which is why you outsource them: So the 3rd party vendor gets sued, not you.
Did the police ever show up? Any charges?
Is peace disturbance no longer a “thing”?
“According to TMZ, authorities arrived on the scene and reported one man was slightly injured.” There was no word of charges but there should be.
Is that Walmart?
Sad to say the airport today is the bus terminal of yesterday.
I’m a 58 year old white woman coming down from a ketamine trip, and this is where I landed. Too f-ing funny.
This is such a bad publicity for Spirit and for the publics perception of safety if employees gang up 4 on 1 to attack its customers. It’s one thing to restrain the hostile passenger, these employees just wanted someone to lash out on. I hope they never ever work in people facing roles and they be arrested accordingly. There are definitely people out there who will normalize this behavior, especially seeing that the only consequence is that the employees got fired. And Spirits reply of blaming a third party is just shameful.
I worked at BWI for over 15 years and have observed that Spirit passengers are notorious for their bad behavior. I have watched video of their passengers physically attacking Spirit employees. I am no longer there so I find it interesting that Spirit found it necessary to hire contractors to perform that type of function but not surprised.
There’s no such thing as ‘bad publicity’ for Spirit. Good publicity for Spirit? Now that’s really newsworthy!
I’m surprised the MTA Police took time away from the numerous speedtraps they run at BWI to assist with this. Perhaps the pax had been there for a couple of days waiting for his checked bag to appear at the carousel, since no matter what airline you fly at BWI, you’ll be guaranteed an interminably long wait. Even when I lived just down the road from there, I’d go out of DCA or IAD to avoid that pit.