Friday, June 15, 2007

Adults Behaving Badly

I am an airline brat. My mother, years ago, worked for Frontier Airlines. My father spent 40 years in the industry, retiring from Delta a few years ago. Two of my uncles worked at Continental and American. And, my cousin works at United. So, to say that I've traveled via air a lot is an understatement.

Although I can get a discounted standby ticket from my father, the hassle involved in flying standby just isn't worth the few dollars I'd save by going that way. Even my cousin rarely flies anywhere on her employee passes because the flights are just too full...a far cry from years ago when we'd both hop on a flight to Hawaii on a whim, and never had to worry about if there was space available.

I got a great, great price on my round trip ticket to San Diego. The only drawback to it was that the times weren't all that great. I ended up flying on the "red eye" the other evening/morning on my return trip. Silly me was actually looking sort of forward to it because, in the past, most of these flights were fairly empty and relatively quiet so taking a nap wasn't a problem

Not this time.

Not only was this flight to Atlanta full (and they say you can't go anywhere in the South without going to Atlanta), but the people in my section of the plane were subjected to the antics of one drunken Tricia Lopez. Tricia and five of her co-workers (we gathered this as she kept referring to one of them as her boss) were scattered throughout our section of the aircraft. They apparently had hit an airport drinking establishment fairly heavily before boarding, although Tricia was, by far the most inebriated. Before the doors were even closed on the plane, she was yelling across the seats to her friends that she wanted to change seats (none of them wanted to sit with her, apparently, so she was stuck with another girl from her group who, thankfully, wasn't nearly as drunk). The flight attendants had to tell her, forcefully and multiple times, to sit down so we could leave. She would then yell to one of the guys in her party, "David, is Tricia Lopez beautiful?" and the guy David would yell back, "Yes, Tricia, you're beautiful." She repeated this stunt with every guy in her party. She'd then yell that she wanted to talk to one of them, and they'd have to remind her that the fasten seatbelt sign was on so they couldn't. All of their conversations were done at a yell, so everyone could hear everything. I was beginning to wonder just how drunk and annoying someone had to be before they were escorted off the flight.

It got better. A few minutes after we took off she mentions, loudly, to her seat partner that she thinks she's wearing a swimsuit under her clothing, and the proceeds to disrobe to show her friend her swimsuit.

A half hour after we leave she asks her friend, "Am I on an airplane?"

She and her friends did not shut up until the flight was over half over. Her screaming for shots of tequila during the beverage service was another highlight. Needless to say, a lot of us didn't get a lot of sleep due to these morons' antics. Tricia, thankfully, fell asleep towards the end of the flight. The last I saw of her, her mouth was wide open, her head was lolling to the side, and her friends were trying to get her up and moving.

I hope she felt like hell.

9 comments:

Princess Lionhead said...

Why was she not kicked off the plane? Have you ever seen the show "Airline" on A & e? They showcase the antics of working for Southwest Airlines. You'd get a kick out of it.

Mrs. Bluebird said...

I have no idea why they didn't toss her butt off the plane. I've seen that show on A&E...my dad thinks it's a riot and as he says, goes to show you what kind of crazies you get.

Unknown said...

Federal Aviation Regulations, 14 CFR Part 91: General Operating and Flight Rules.

91.17(b):
Except in an emergency, no pilot of a civil aircraft may allow a person who appears to be intoxicated or who demonstrates by manner or physical indications that the individual is under the influence of drugs (except a medical patient under proper care) to be carried in that aircraft

I don't understand why more airlines don't enforce this. They should post the rule in huge letters in the airport bar. I'm all about taking the edge off if you're scared to fly but come on...

Mrs. Bluebird said...

Robert, thank you for your post with that information. I too, don't understand why they don't enforce this more. It certainly would have made for a more pleasant flight if Tricia wasn't on it!

ms-teacher said...

Wow! I can only imagine how annoying that must have been for you. I hope Tricia's co-workers discourage her from drinking because she is truly an ugly drunk.

Thanks for the info on the San Diego Wild Animal Park. My best friend from high school and I are leaving for Anaheim tomorrow with our families. We will be at Disneyland for three days and then we are headed to San Diego for the remainder of our stay.

Princess Lionhead said...

By the way, Mrs. Bluebird, "Robert" in your comments is my hubby, just in case you didn't put that together. :)

Darren said...

Between seats that are narrower than my shoulders (and I'm not a big man), and the steerage-class passengers than can now afford to fly, and the TSA, I don't fly anymore unless I absolutely have to. I'm attending a conference in DC next week, and since it would take days to drive there from California, I guess I'm flying. Anything west of the eastern slope of the Rockies, though, and I'm driving.

BTW, I'm flying Frontier next week :-)

CaliforniaTeacherGuy said...

I'm a pacifist, but I think I might have been tempted to kill in this situation.

EHT said...

I certainly hope this person wasn't actually from Atlanta. I don't want her anywhere around me. I couldn't help but think about the comparison between what happened on your plane and what happens in many of our classrooms today. Rules exist to remove people, but we are faced with constant inaction.