A woman has been banned from United Airlines while it investigates what caused a flight diversion to Phoenix. Passenger video suggests the woman went ballistic after being denied alcohol when a flight attendant judged she was already intoxicated.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Woman Given Benefit Of The Doubt Causes Flight Diversion On United Airlines After Refusing To Sit Down After Being Denied Alcohol
UA1813 was traveling from Houston (IAH) to Los Angeles (LAX) on July 25, 2023. But it ended up in Phoenix (PHX) thanks to a passenger onboard who was not having a good day.
It appears a woman went ballistic when a flight attendant denied her alcohol. We learn that she appeared to be intoxicated and for her own safety and the safety of others onboard, she was cut off.
Another flight attendant makes a noble effort to avoid a costly diversion. He begs with her to behave. He pleads with her to sit down. She is reminded that he gave her a hug when she boarded in an attempt to soothe her anxiety. He warns her that if the plane diverts she will be arrested.
Her response? “Let’s do it.”
https://twitter.com/blakers33/status/1684075644169379841?s=20
@united pic.twitter.com/ct39ZQDwAE
— ranch is supreme (@blakers33) July 26, 2023
And guess what? It might be this poor flight attendant who gets in trouble. He also reminds her that he let her on the flight even though she had been drinking wine and attempted to consumer her own bottle of wine. It might have been that she already exhibited signs of intoxication prior to boarding (for instance, the crying and panic attack).
No good deeds goes unpunished, does it? I bet that flight attendant will not give anyone the benefit of the doubt any longer.
The flight diverted to Phoenix and she was led off the aircraft in handcuffs. It is not clear if she was charged for anything (there were some comments on social media that United put her up in a hotel and flew her to LA in first class the next morning, but I see absolutely no basis for that claim). United had this to say about the incident:
“On Tuesday, July 25, United flight 1813 diverted to Phoenix due to a disruptive passenger who continually refused to follow the flight attendant’s instructions to return to her seat. Law enforcement officials met the aircraft on arrival and removed the passenger, and the flight subsequently departed for Los Angeles later that evening. The customer has been banned from future United flights while we review this matter.”
Her name has not been released, but several of fellow passengers onboard said her name was Karen…
CONCLUSION
The issue here is not just another intoxicated woman caring a diversion, but the flight attendant who gave her chance after chance to sit down and shut up, but may have erred in the first place by letting her onboard when she already was 1.) breaking rules (by attempting to consume her own alcohol onboard) and 2.) showed signs of intoxication. I tend to be highly sympathetic to the flight attendant here, but I betcha he won’t be so accommodating going forward. Perhaps the lesson here is that if a passenger reasonably looks like she will be trouble, you leave the trouble behind…
@bperkins33 / Twitter
Passengers like this are why I sometimes hate flying. I hope the flight attendant doesn’t get in trouble, but I fear he will.
Not to worry the AFA will protect him.
In all seriousness flight attendants are put in an impossible situation if he had denied her boarding she would have caused a scene so he gave her the benefit of the doubt and let her board and how does she repay his kindness by causing a scene which resulted in a diversion. United is putting a lot of pressure on their flight attendants to be more friendly be more customers focused as United continues to try and change many of the negative views that come to peoples mind when you say United Airlines. This FA more than likely thought he was doing the right thing by letting this passenger board if United now tries to discipline him not only will he NEVER again do anything nice for a passenger it will send a strong message to all of UA’s FA’s that even if you had the best intentions United will still take action against you.
As long as airlines provide alcohol these KAREN’s are going to exist. It is the AIRLINES fault since they are greedy basta*ds wanting to squeeze every last penny out of passengers. People being rude, drunk, argumentative is a small price to pay for the amount of money Airlines are making.
I think a few AA meetings will help this woman if she’s that desperate for alcohol…
With this kind of insinuated drinking problem, she probably needs more mental health therapy for more issues than just an alcohol problem.
In the above shown videos, the FA seems like he’s gone into a bit of an aggressive and confrontational tone too that probably doesn’t work all that well with an already aggravated person being told to cooperate or else.
How much of a huge threat was she to the entire plane? She is a total moron but was it really necessary to divert the plane to Phoenix and ruin the trip of the entire plane if it was probably another 60 minutes to get to the final destination? Zip her into the seat and let her scream but I am guessing that by the time pilots arranged to divert the plane and get it there it was no much longer until they got to LAX.
“No good deeds goes unpunished, does it?”
Indeed.
Nothing will happen to this moron.
Odd. She appears to be sitting in economy plus. Usually the riff raff sit in the back.
Thanks for letting us know you sit in the back
1K, so no. I would imagine you have to fly first class, as that is the only seat that will fit your fat disgusting body. Otherwise you’d have to purchase two seats for every flight.
I’m not a riff-raff, I don’t drink or even eat on an airplane, but I sit in the back. Apparently, in the extremely rare case of a crash, statistics say there is more chance of survival at the back.
Per the description offered above, she was already drunk at boarding; the FA facilitated that further by providing more alcohol. He blew it and she was a moron. Dumping her in Phoenix may have been the smartest option since she could have been disruptive for the remaining 90 minutes of the flight. End of the day, maybe an no alcohol policy would be best for the flying public… there seems to be a lot of bingedrinking-related issues on flights nowadays.
Am I the only one who sleeps soundly after drinking a lot of booze? The last thing I want to do is yell or make a lot of noise.
Health problems: alcoholism, anger outbursts, nut allergies, heart problems. All should be kept under control before flying, otherwise you should not be allowed to fly.
Does anyone know how to behave while on a jet?
People get upset when they are denied boarding for not being compliant with issues that impact safety. If a person is intoxicated before boarding, how will they be managed in a more critical inflight safety situation? It’s best to not give the benefit of the doubt and do what is necessary on the ground to ensure total safety compliance in the air.