A former American Airlines flight attendant is fighting to get his job back, after he was assaulted mid-flight, as reported by WSOC-TV, and flagged by View from the Wing. There are still some questions, though no matter how you slice it, I feel bad for this guy.
In this post:
American flight attendant assaulted on Las Vegas flight
This incident initially dates back to December 31, 2023, when former American flight attendant Tillman Robinson was working flight AA2470 from Charlotte (CLT) to Las Vegas (LAS). He had been at the airline for 25 years, and had a spotless record up until this point.
While working this flight, he was attacked by a 25-year-old passenger. The passenger was cited for assault, and later completed anger management, which resulted in his record being wiped clean.
As Robinson describes this incident, “he starts putting his finger in my face, he starts yelling expletives, then he pushes me, and then he starts taking swings.” One day after the flight, Robinson was suspended, and then 10 months later, he was ultimately fired, a decision that shocked him.
Robinson states that his union has been working to get him rehired, but so far, efforts haven’t been successful. Robinson believes he was penalized for defending himself during the altercation, saying, “it starts with asking people to step back, move away, turn around, and walk away when they are trying to strike at you.” He says he used all the training he was provided by the airline to protect himself. The 51-year-old is now worried about how he’s going to pay his bills, and a GoFundMe has even been set up for him.
American released the following statement about his incident:
“We take these matters incredibly seriously. After conducting a thorough internal investigation, it was determined the former team member acted in a manner inconsistent with our expectations and defined policies — prior to the altercation and throughout.”
No matter how you slice it, I feel bad for this guy
Based on watching an interview with Robinson, he seems like a really great guy. I actually asked an American flight attendant friend about him, and she knew of this story and had flown with him before, and had nothing but nice things to say. Robinson even has his pilot’s license, and described the job of being a flight attendant as “a blessing, to be able to take advantage of a career in aviation.”
I think it goes without saying that the big question — and the reason he was fired — involved how he defended himself. It’s clear that the passenger was the aggressor, and that Robinson tried to initially deescalate the situation. However, it’s perhaps a little concerning how Robinson said in the interview “what am I supposed to do, am I supposed to take it, would that have made American Airlines feel better?”
It’s also noteworthy how in a statement, American claimed that his actions were in a manner that was inconsistent with the company’s policies, both “prior to the altercation and throughout.” So we don’t know how he responded, but clearly American didn’t like how he reacted to an aggressive passenger.
No matter how you slice it, I feel bad for this guy. He had a good performance record at the airline, and he had been there for 25 years. Flight attendants have dealt with so much abuse from passengers over the years, and they don’t deserve that.
No matter how much training you receive, it’s hard to know how you’re going to react in a situation where you’re being assaulted for the first time in your career (or maybe even life). Some people might have a “fight or flight” response, and it’s really sad that something like this could cause someone to lose their lifelong career, which they enjoyed so much.
Bottom line
A former American flight attendant was fired after an inflight assault that happened on New Year’s Even in 2023. A 25-year-old passenger assaulted the flight attendant, going as far as punching him. However, the airline claims his behavior was inconsistent with the company’s training, both “prior to the altercation and throughout.”
Ultimately I feel bad for the guy. He had a 25-year career at the airline, and was liked by his colleagues. Flight attendants deal with a lot of abuse, and no matter how well you’re trained, it’s hard to know how you’re going to act when you’re being punched at.
What do you make of this American flight attendant being fired?
After 25 years of service, he was surely making a great salary. Perhaps this was an opportunity for the airlines to "save money", by firing an employee making a good salary. They can hire a new employee and pay them half of what this flight attendant was making. Not uncommon nowadays, but deplorable.
A local television station did that to my cousin, who had been working there 25 years, with an excellent work record....
After 25 years of service, he was surely making a great salary. Perhaps this was an opportunity for the airlines to "save money", by firing an employee making a good salary. They can hire a new employee and pay them half of what this flight attendant was making. Not uncommon nowadays, but deplorable.
A local television station did that to my cousin, who had been working there 25 years, with an excellent work record. She was making too much money, and they hired someone to replace her at half what they paid her. A shame!
I had suspicions about this situation. Seems there could be racism by the airline. Then I looked up Tillman Robinson on the net and it confirmed what I figured.
Yes it still happens in America. If you are paying attention you will see it throughout society.
C'mon 25 years, spotless record. Hopefully he can sue them.
I just don't get that mentality in US management. Surely if he's got a clean record and he's not 100% at fault for whatever happened it would be a lot quicker, easier, and consequently cheaper, to just slap him with a written wanting.
I have experienced many unpleasant moments with FA in the US, shouting at me and when I reacted they immediately started telling me to shut up, otherwise I am out of the aircraft….
Yes I am fully aware that some passengers are unruly, but we also have to see both sides.
However as stated, we do not know enough so we can’t judge on this particular case.
I hope for the future...
I have experienced many unpleasant moments with FA in the US, shouting at me and when I reacted they immediately started telling me to shut up, otherwise I am out of the aircraft….
Yes I am fully aware that some passengers are unruly, but we also have to see both sides.
However as stated, we do not know enough so we can’t judge on this particular case.
I hope for the future people learn to be respectful to each other again - however with the current leader in the US this is wishful thinking….
US airlines are well known for not only tolerating but even encouraging their cabin crews to escalate conflicts rather than deescalate them. If the crew member in question got fired for acting inappropriately during a conflict resolution, I'm confident it must have been an extreme behaviour on his side.
If the story sounds too crazy to be true, it probably is too crazy to be true.
It feels like a big chunk of this story has been left out?
This I think is absolutely the worst thing that American Airlines would due to someone who has such great ethics. He has been their for 25 years and loves his job. Give this guy his job back.
Many international carriers have cameras on board. Not in the lavatories but in the main part of the airplane or the public areas. I think US carriers should do the same. This way there would be proof for what lead up to events like this. There is always something we did not know such as what lead up to the event, etc.
I prefer privacy. Thank you.
When you fly a common carrier, you're using public transportation can be recorded without your consent.
I feel bad for him too
Being based in LAS i witness scenes like this almost every other time I fly
in the past i thought that flying only first on legacy carriers would limit these instances, but now its unavoidable.
Sometimes i witness power trip behavior from FAs, bit given the characters often on board I find it perfectly understandable. Many people on a las vegas flight feel like are already on/have not left yet the Strip
BTW I realize i have flown several times with Tilman-outstanding guy
The date of the incident and the destination speak volumes. Hypothetically the pax had been celebrating NY Eve and had laid on a pile pre-flight . We only "know" that the FA has 25 years of clean record and the Pax was charged with assault. The court gave the assaulter basically a slap on the wrist and no record so the original conviction could not be used to defend the FA.
Without more information...
The date of the incident and the destination speak volumes. Hypothetically the pax had been celebrating NY Eve and had laid on a pile pre-flight . We only "know" that the FA has 25 years of clean record and the Pax was charged with assault. The court gave the assaulter basically a slap on the wrist and no record so the original conviction could not be used to defend the FA.
Without more information it is impossible to say but I suspect that in 2023 AA was being attacked by passenger rights groups so the outcome was definitely political.
THE REAL STORY
100% the 25-year-old started things by yelling at the flight attendant and pointing at him. The flight attendant did not de-escalate.
The young punk kept pointing his finger in the flight attendant his face. The flight attendant slapped his hand away, said don’t put your finger in my face. That is when the thank you “fight” started; mostly just pushing and shoving .
Show out the 25-year-old started it, the flight...
THE REAL STORY
100% the 25-year-old started things by yelling at the flight attendant and pointing at him. The flight attendant did not de-escalate.
The young punk kept pointing his finger in the flight attendant his face. The flight attendant slapped his hand away, said don’t put your finger in my face. That is when the thank you “fight” started; mostly just pushing and shoving .
Show out the 25-year-old started it, the flight attendant was actually the first one to make contact. The flight attendant did say that when he was pointing his finger, he touched him, but no one on the plane saw that. The 25-year-old was the one who shoved him hard.
The flight attendant was subsequently fired for fighting with a passenger. That is the real story.
A perfect example of how ineffectual unions are. Delta FAs who think a union is the answer need to read stories like this.
I have a FA friend at ual with 30+ years of exemplary service and commendations. Well one day another FA accused him of sexual assault. It was there word against each other. The accuser all of a sudden had a friend who allegedly witnessed it. No other proof than that. My friend don't even know who these people are. The accuser even has a criminal record. Yet ual just whole heartedly believed the story and...
I have a FA friend at ual with 30+ years of exemplary service and commendations. Well one day another FA accused him of sexual assault. It was there word against each other. The accuser all of a sudden had a friend who allegedly witnessed it. No other proof than that. My friend don't even know who these people are. The accuser even has a criminal record. Yet ual just whole heartedly believed the story and the union didn't want to fight it. I've known my friend forever, there is no way he would have done anything remotely close to it. He takes work seriously. And it's not like he has some hidden weirdness because I have some super powers when it comes to sniffing that stuff out. And questioning my friend I'm convinced he barely interacted with the other FA and never saw the accusers friend. So are the airlines looking for creative ways to eliminate more expensive senior employees? Who knows.
To quote a night club patron being denied entry into a joint I did security for in the 1990's: THAT BULL$H¡T IS BULL$H¡T!!
4 realist words ever spoken. Didn't American get the memo, we are trying to make America great. Oh, great again...
All joking aside, from the readers perspective this dude was done dirty.
We do not know all of the facts. What we do know is that the person who was found guilty of a crime was given the option to receive training. The FA, with a clean employment record deserves the same opportunity.
Very reasonable logic. Agreed.
What a shame the poor guy was fired.
AA was just worried about their bottom line and there is no humanity on part of this company.
This is totally unacceptable! The FA was just trying to defend himself and add to it the attacker was not only arrested, but convicted for assault! Just when you think AA management can’t get any worse, they set a new level of stupidity!!! Whomever made this decision should be fired immediately. I have 3 million + miles and am Platinum for life, so it is not like I have not seen it all!
I have been advocating for the last couple of years for a bill in my state to ban employers for firing or otherwise disciplining employees for defending themselves. This is not the first time I’ve seen something like this happen. The fact such a law is needed is ridiculous.
Tillman is one of the most amazing humans I have ever met and have had the privilege of working with. He does not deserve this at all and we are behind him 100%.
It does seem like there’s more than meets the eye and it’s not as though AA can publicly say any other background info.
APFA isn’t perfect but you have to imagine they’ve looked into this as well.
I don't think we know enough to form a fully informed opinion on this.
Sad for him.
I would like to know more about what AA says happened PRIOR to the altercation however. Was there a lead up to this altercation that we do not know about? Not that that should ever give anyone an excuse to become physically abusive. However, AA seems to be saying what was going on before the altercation that was not dealt with professionally.
".....inconsistent with our expectations and defined policies — prior to the altercation and throughout."
Agreed, seems like there was missing context that led up to this, but I also think from what's been presented that AA way overreacted by firing him. Not the FA's fault the passenger took a swing at him, that is not ever the solution, even if for argument's sake he was brusque or the passenger felt like the FA was being rude or dismissive.
I'm sure there has got to be video of it somewhere since we are all camera happy when something like this develops...
Such an absolutely ridiculous decision by American Airlines. How does firing him help anyone? It sets a precedent that defending yourself against angry, aggressive passengers isn't allowed.
Sad as it is to hear of anyone losing their job, AA performed an investigation and found fault with the FA. Believe me AA has an extremely competent and professional internal investigations team and if that's their conclusion then they had the proper grounds to reach it.
Not surprised you have this take considering what is displayed in your profile picture.
"Not surprised you have this take considering what is displayed in your profile picture."
And he's not even a lawyer, he just plays one in comments sections.
Had the exact same view.
Are you a lawyer? Maybe you could offer your services to help the Flight Attendant...
This story is also on a competing website and that's how I know of it. There might be more to this story, including a flight attendant that did not handle the situation properly and made it worst.
That being said, there's real threat to air travel safety by drunk/drugged out, mentally unbalanced, and toddler like behavior among adults. And I mean all three conditions present.
My Youtube feed is full of videos of these...
This story is also on a competing website and that's how I know of it. There might be more to this story, including a flight attendant that did not handle the situation properly and made it worst.
That being said, there's real threat to air travel safety by drunk/drugged out, mentally unbalanced, and toddler like behavior among adults. And I mean all three conditions present.
My Youtube feed is full of videos of these people, at least the interaction is usually in the airport before they get on a plane. Unfortunately, this doesn't to be taken as seriously as the "prospective Muslim that will get onboard and fly the plane into a building." Yeah they might be taken to jail. But let out on little to no bond, given probation (if they even show up for the court date) and not put on a Do Not Fly List-although the individual airline might do so if the situation involves them.
everybody so quick to judge, draw conclusions and render their verdict these days, despite not having all the facts. which is certainly your right to do so if you feel it. society these days....sigh.............and im referring to all parties, whatever "side" with which you are aligned.
Where was the Union to save his job?
Union has his back.
He put his wallet there.
That's the only thing union hang on too before his free fall.
Ed would tell him to save the dues and buy video games and a new TV.