Video Commentary: American Airlines Stroller Incident – Marc MacYoung

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There are things way, way off about this situation.

This is a rolling situation that apparently started on the ramp and then got onto the plane. I’m also willing to lay money on that this part of the trauma-drama was a shift in tactics by the woman.

As in:

A- Look how pissed the gate guy is. You don’t get someone that pissed off without a lot of build up.

B- Look at the size of her ‘back pack.’ That’s a red flag. (While I haven’t traveled as much in the last few years, let’s just say ‘a certain type’ of person tries to get around paying for checking luggage by huge carry-ons.) Her backpack is — in fact — thicker than her.

C – It’s standard practice to ‘check’ the stroller at the end of the ramp and it be there waiting for you when you land. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Why was this even an issue?

D – Tying B and C together, was the baby stroller filled with all the necessary baby stuff? Because you know … that honking big backpack didn’t have any baby stuff? As in it was filled with other stuff to save $25 bucks.

E – Standard boarding procedure is families traveling with small children board first. While we must allow for a layover, if it wasn’t, why was the plane already boarded when the wailing woman showed up? If she was doing a connection, then it’s weird they gave the stroller back and didn’t just shuttle her to her connection.

F – Her histrionics were smack dab in the middle of a choke point. Notice the people moving past her. How many people were delayed boarding that we didn’t see in the clip?

G – How long had this been going on before filming — including her and the agent out on the ramp? Stop and think about it. When you fly and you see guys hanging out at the end of the ramp to carry strollers etc to the underplane, how are they dressed? They’re usually cargo handlers. (IF that gate guy came down the ramp to deal with her BEFORE the filming that took time. Then it takes more time to get that pissed. ) So while we don’t know how long things had been going on the ramp, odds are it had been a while.

H – Wailing woman had an audience. Furthermore she was –in essence — refusing to be consoled, calmed or seated. Quite often this is indicative of ‘okay bitch didn’t work, time to play victim’ shift in strategies. (The gate guy’s comment of “You don’t know what the story is” is telling.)

I – He almost hit my baby!!! Wait…what? I’ve seen mothers react to their children being hurt and legitimately endangered … and it ain’t pretty. Let me put it to you this way, most the times I was targeted by Mamma Bear, I bled. Why wasn’t gate guy torn up if he’d almost hit her baby — over the struggle for the stroller? And while we’re at it, if the kid was in her arms, how’d the stroller get swung that high?

J – Galahad. Yeah… about that. Ask any bouncer about having to throw misbehaving women out of the bar and would-be-Galahads showing up. Studmuffins there is the guy who just had to put in his two cents.

K – Galahad apparently had a lot of experience with being a big guy and using his size to intimidate. He escalated and started threatening PDQ. Either that or the situation had been going on a lot longer (delaying the flight) than we know and that contributed to the speed of his escalation.

L – Which going back into that whole reverse werewolf thing (psycho-furious to Little Bo Peep act, or in this case weeping victim) getting a Galahad to come to the rescue to beat up whoever wronged her is very much a part of that strategy. “I can’t kick your ass, but I’ll find someone who can to do it for me.”

Like I said, there’s a whole lot more to this situation than just the video clip.

 

Commentary from Erik Kondo
Here is an article that provides some more of the story.