Widow Says Southwest Didn’t Let Her Call Suicidal Husband

[wmenorr67]

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/widow-says-southwest-didnt-let-her-call-suicidal-118933913942.html

I think I would have been thrown off the damn plane.

[Brad Johnson]

Something about the story isn't sitting right with me. Southwest is pretty good at making reasonable exceptions for extenuating circumstances. This definitely qualifies. Also, they have in-flight communication methods for people wanting or needing to do so. She could have requested to use that system at any time. Finally, I don't know a single pilot or flight attendant who wouldn't drop pretty much everything and be on the horn trying to address a situation this dire and immediate. The flight attendant both "slapped the phone out of her hand" and didn't inform the captain of a potential passenger emergency situation? Something smells.

Also, I read the Fox News story and her recounting of events reeks of embellishment. "The officers got on their knees, put their hands on their hearts and 'We're sorry to inform you your husband has died'"? That sounds more like a sitcom script than real life. She spent the entire flight "sobbing uncontrollably in my seat" and not a single flight attendant noticed a distraught passenenger?

On the surface this smells a lot like someone using a personal tragedy as sympathy-bait. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as reported, but too many inconsistencies with how this type situation would play out around airline personnel I know. I want more info.

Brad

[vaskidmark]

"Pilot says delay of takeoff was necessary to allow passenger to make call to suicidal husband of passenger."

One of the reasons I think we are not reading a headline like that is because hysterical people, in the midst of being hysterical, have difficulty rationally discussing what is making them hysterical and formulating plans to resolve the hysteria.  In other words, it's damn difficult to calmly ask the stewardess to relay to the captain that your husband has just texted you saying he is about to off himself and is there any way you can be allowed to make a phone call to him in the hopes of stopping him from offing himself.

It's also damned difficult to get officious *expletive*it-heads to listen to someone claiming to be a special emergency situation when they have too often dealt with jerks having an emergency because they cannot get a drink before the plane even gets to the start of the runway.

Southwest has, IMHO, stepped on its corporate crank while wearing baseball spikes by offereing a refund as the way to make up to the now-widow.  Again IMHO a sincere apology for failing to understand the severity of the situation, and nothing else, would have been much better.

stay safe.

[wmenorr67]

I agree with you Brad, but my take on it is I would have asked to get off the damn plane and done what I could from where I was instead of "wasting" two hours on a flight.

[Fitz]

Something about the story isn't sitting right with me. Southwest is pretty good at making reasonable exceptions for extenuating circumstances. This definitely qualifies. Also, they have in-flight communication methods for people wanting or needing to do so. She could have requested to use that system at any time. Finally, I don't know a single pilot or flight attendant who wouldn't drop pretty much everything and be on the horn trying to address a situation this dire and immediate. The flight attendant both "slapped the phone out of her hand" and didn't inform the captain of a potential passenger emergency situation? Something smells.

Also, I read the Fox News story and her recounting of events reeks of embellishment. "The officers got on their knees, put their hands on their hearts and 'We're sorry to inform you your husband has died'"? That sounds more like a sitcom script than real life. She spent the entire flight "sobbing uncontrollably in my seat" and not a single flight attendant noticed a distraught passenenger?

On the surface this smells a lot like someone using a personal tragedy as sympathy-bait. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as reoorted, but too many inconsistencies with how this type situation would play out around airline personnel I know. Iwant more info.

Brad

Yeah. This really smells bad, this story

[makattak]

Something about the story isn't sitting right with me. Southwest is pretty good at making reasonable exceptions for extenuating circumstances. This definitely qualifies. Also, they have in-flight communication methods for people wanting or needing to do so. She could have requested to use that system at any time. Finally, I don't know a single pilot or flight attendant who wouldn't drop pretty much everything and be on the horn trying to address a situation this dire and immediate. The flight attendant both "slapped the phone out of her hand" and didn't inform the captain of a potential passenger emergency situation? Something smells.

Also, I read the Fox News story and her recounting of events reeks of embellishment. "The officers got on their knees, put their hands on their hearts and 'We're sorry to inform you your husband has died'"? That sounds more like a sitcom script than real life. She spent the entire flight "sobbing uncontrollably in my seat" and not a single flight attendant noticed a distraught passenenger?

On the surface this smells a lot like someone using a personal tragedy as sympathy-bait. Not saying it didn't happen exactly as reoorted, but too many inconsistencies with how this type situation would play out around airline personnel I know. Iwant more info.

Brad

I think skidmark has it: my guess is the lady likely panicked as was unable to explain her situation. She just sat there stunned, and unable to function. There were several opportunities to have done something other than just sit there for 2 hours. My guess is she blames the airline for not understanding her problem without having made more than a (seemingly) token attempt to do something.

People want to have someone to blame for their problems.

[BlueStarLizzard]

IDK about being unable to explain. You usually don't have to be too coherent when using the word "suicide" to get attention, especially on an airplane. It might be the wrong kind of attention, but it would have at least gotten someone to drag the details out of her.

[MechAg94]

Would the stewardess slap the phone out of her hand?  I figured they might kick her off the plane for non-compliance, but I didn't think they would do that normally.

As far as refunds, if the husband is already dead, just exactly what else can they do?  They can't exactly hire Jesus to go over and perform a miracle. 

[vaskidmark]

IDK about being unable to explain. You usually don't have to be too coherent when using the word "suicide" to get attention, especially on an airplane. It might be the wrong kind of attention, but it would have at least gotten someone to drag the details out of her.

Except that it's not the flight crew's job to drag details out of her.

There have been (n=>1) times when I have had to deal with someone acting hysterical, or realy-truely hysterical.  There were (n=<0) times when it was possible to drag anything coherent out of them.  Which is why the movies seem to always show someone slapping the hysteric, or dousing them with cold water.  Anything to snap them out of the hysteria; which usually cannot be done but probably makes the slapper/douser feel a whole lot better.  Sadly, I've been restricted to waiting for medical personnel to dart the hysteric and then wait for them to come back from la-la land.

Being as how the new widow settled down (no screaming, no fighting) and spent the flight sobbing at a level that did not upset the other passengers does not necessarily mean she was no longer hysterical.  Had she snapped out of it she probably would have found a way to explain the problem to the flight crew, who then could have initiated all the wonderful in-flight technological stuff that might have helped her.

stay safe.

[Hawkmoon]

If her husband had wanted to discuss the situation, he would have called her rather than texting her. If she had called back, either he wouldn't have answered or he would have shut his phone off after sending the text.

People who have decided that they ARE going to commit suicide are not prone to "discussing" it. His text message asking forgiveness was his final word on the subject. That's what is, and the unfortunate woman needs to deal with it.

[Brad Johnson]

Couple more observations...

The flight happened last month and she's just now making waves? Granted, it could have taken some time to get traction in the media but a cursory search turned up no stories older than two days. Why the long delay?

Also, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and presume she was too shocked to act in anything remotely resembling a rational manner.  However, this also has to presume she was unable to act on any nunber of potential notifcation vectors: tell someone directly, show them the text, mutter something over and over again, etc.. Heck, even rocking back and forth in the seat with a blank look on her face would likely have gotten flight crew's attention. ("Captain, passenger Cray Z. Planebommer in seat 4C is acting strangely...")

Finally, where's the text? If I were on her side of this I'd be flashing a copy of the text all over the place. Again, I play devil's advocate and presume she deleted them accidently. Or maybe lost her phone. Whatever. There's still the option of retrieving the messages from her service provider.

The more I think about the situation more fishy it seems.

Brad