Oh man, we already have our video of the week, and it’s only Monday.
Check out these crazy videos of an American Airlines flight from Nicaragua to Miami on Saturday.
The first video captures a woman smoking a cigarette at her seat. Once a flight attendant is called, she extinguishes the cigarette in a soda can and puts it in the seatback pocket, only to blame it on the guy next to her. Here’s the first clip:
The second clip is where it really gets good. Given that she already knows she’ll be arrested upon landing, she feels the need to inform the rest of the plane that the United States has declared war against Venezuela, and that Venezuela has been declared a national security threat.
Just to make sure she was crystal clear, she repeated the same phrase, but substituted “United States” with “Los Estados Unidos.” After all, she didn’t want the Spanish-speaking passengers to be at an information disadvantage. 😉
Here’s the clip:
Here’s a firsthand reddit account of the incident. Possibly the best part of the story is that she’s actually a Penn State professor and was apparently traveling with two of her students!
Bless You Kay! Couldn't said better myself, Sean Penn also took a chunk of my country's money 'in the name of communism'
Best part of the interview: "Fidel agrees with me that the CIA had some involvement in giving [Hugo Chavez] cancer, and so he died very sadly."
You know, I'm inclined to believe a lot of out-there things about the CIA, but decimating the white blood cell count of a foreign dictator seems... unlikely?
More info here! ("Penn State Abington Professor Speaks Out About Her Miami Arrest")
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/03/17/karen-halnon-penn-state-abington-smoking-on-plane-venezuela/#LfcZfwg3K5BMCjUD.01
@JoeMart -- Penn State and U of Penn are two VERY different schools (Penn State is a large, public land-grant university in the middle of nowhere, and UPenn is a highly prestigious - for some reason - private, technically Ivy League school in Philadelphia).
@ Brian L. - This will be the last of my replies on this topic as I don't think either one of is intending to spark an intense debate within the comment section.
1) Regarding your reference to the reddit thread, the OP did say that "others told me she was pounding them back pretty hard in the terminal and she also was on prescription painkillers". So not only is this information hearsay from someone...
@ Brian L. - This will be the last of my replies on this topic as I don't think either one of is intending to spark an intense debate within the comment section.
1) Regarding your reference to the reddit thread, the OP did say that "others told me she was pounding them back pretty hard in the terminal and she also was on prescription painkillers". So not only is this information hearsay from someone on an anonymous message board who claims to have been sitting next to the woman on the flight, but he didn't even actually observe her "pounding them back pretty hard". I agree that is irresponsible to drink heavily while taking certain perscription drugs and before boarding a plane, but we don't know that any of that happened here. What I do know is I've seen a lot of drunk people in my day, and the way she sounds and is acting doesn't strike me as the behavior of someone who had only hit the bottle too hard.
2) Her contact information is available. But if you didn't see a link to that information (including her name and CV), would you know where to look based on the video alone? My contact information is available too, but aside from someone posting it, I think you'd have to go out of your way to do some work to find it.
3) I don't get the "PUBLIC EMPLOYEE" thing. She's not a congresswoman. She doesn't work for the State of Pennsylvania. She works for Penn State University. Public universities, in general, get very little funding from tax dollars these days. In fact, I did a quick search on Penn State and it looks like their 2014-15 Income Budget funding from state appropriations is only 6%. That doesn't exactly scream "PUBLIC EMPLOYEE" to me. Tuition dollars pay professors.
@RH - "This doesn’t seem like it was intended to be a staged demonstration. The lady just snapped."
According to the reddit post Lucky linked to, she was "pounding them back pretty hard in the terminal and she was also on prescription painkillers." She DID NOT just snap. She made the irresponsible decision to 1) drink heavily and 2) mix alcohol and prescription drugs. Someone with her background should know better. The fact that she...
@RH - "This doesn’t seem like it was intended to be a staged demonstration. The lady just snapped."
According to the reddit post Lucky linked to, she was "pounding them back pretty hard in the terminal and she was also on prescription painkillers." She DID NOT just snap. She made the irresponsible decision to 1) drink heavily and 2) mix alcohol and prescription drugs. Someone with her background should know better. The fact that she didn't, and is charged by the state of PA with educating young people, is frightening.
"I’ve certainly done stupid things in my life (not a plane, mind you) that I wouldn’t want posted in a video next to my CV and work contact information."
Then don't act like an ass in public. And again, SHE IS A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE. Her contact information is, to a large extent, already available for anyone who cares to look.
"It’s my opinion that the culture of “internet shaming” has gotten out of control."
Except the behavior in this case, especially when involving a PUBLIC EMPLOYEE, deserves shame and condemnation.
On a domestic flight a few years back, the woman seated next to me absent-mindedly pulled out a cigarette and lighter at 30,000 feet, and started trying to smoke. Her friend in the aisle seat immediately nudged her and screeched "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The woman looked around in a daze, and a look of total confusion and dismay came over her face as she took in her surroundings.
Fortunately for her, the cigarette hadn't...
On a domestic flight a few years back, the woman seated next to me absent-mindedly pulled out a cigarette and lighter at 30,000 feet, and started trying to smoke. Her friend in the aisle seat immediately nudged her and screeched "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The woman looked around in a daze, and a look of total confusion and dismay came over her face as she took in her surroundings.
Fortunately for her, the cigarette hadn't caught, and she quickly crammed it back in her purse, leaving just the faint whiff of sparks from the lighter. An alarmed flight attendant came around a moment later looking for the source. The two women just sat there quietly, looking both terrified and like they were about to burst out laughing. I don't know what was going through her head, but it seemed like an honest mistake, so I chuckled to myself and kept quiet.
@Brian L. - I see where you're coming from. She is a public employee and she did pull a ridiculous stunt in public, but she is also a human being. She's clearly not well - I don't know if it's a nervous breakdown or what, but it seems to be more serious than having too many cocktails in the terminal before the flight. This doesn't seem like it was intended to be a staged demonstration....
@Brian L. - I see where you're coming from. She is a public employee and she did pull a ridiculous stunt in public, but she is also a human being. She's clearly not well - I don't know if it's a nervous breakdown or what, but it seems to be more serious than having too many cocktails in the terminal before the flight. This doesn't seem like it was intended to be a staged demonstration. The lady just snapped.
I've certainly done stupid things in my life (not a plane, mind you) that I wouldn't want posted in a video next to my CV and work contact information. I think this would likely be the case for most people, and I personally would respect that. It's my opinion that the culture of "internet shaming" has gotten out of control. But hey - like I said, this is just my two cents.
Hi Lucky
I am confused by the sequence of events. In the reddit link you kindly provided the person says she had her "rant." Then whilst waiting for the police she has a cigarette. Of course watching the clips might help but on a train so sorry if this is a daft point/question.
@RH - As Shut up Rich notes, she works at a public university funded by taxpayers. She is a public employee. But that's not even relevant, IMO. ANYONE who pulls crap like this deserves to be embarrassed and shamed, personally and professionally. Don't want to be shamed? Don't want to be embarrassed like that? Then don't act like a moron in public.
Crazy story.
However, I do agree with commenter Rich - posting the videos and making the comment that she is a college professor is probably enough. I don't think the link to her personal and professional information and e-mail address is warranted. Sure, that might be the kind of stuff that people will dig up and post on reddit, but I don't think you really want your blog to serve as that kind of platform. Just my two cents.
@Rich
Stfu and gtfo. This lady's name should be spread. She is a disgrace to the human race.
I was on the flight and she did NOT get arrested when we all deplaned. She exited before us and we were right behind her through TSA and then through secondary but she did not get arrested.
I'm just glad we have gone from a point when smoking was perfectly acceptable and common on planes 30 years ago to a point where people freak out when one person lights up. I think that is our society moving in the right direction.
@ Tom -- I don't think anyone was "freaking out." Smoking is one thing, but then blaming it on someone else, going on a rant, and not following crew member instructions is the problem.
I hope the good U of Penn professor doesn't get tenure. She seems to smoke something not regulated by the FDA. When she started the political rant, it was the perfect cue for a pax to grab a guitar and sing the 1980's movie Airplane version of River of Jordan, while holding up hands and doing the wave.
@sk
"Liberalism is a disease"...
Really??
What a pathetic little man you are.
Go smoke something instead
I guess if right-wingers feel it's appropriate to post their politics seemingly everywhere, whether it's germane, intelligent, or neither....
This lady was stupid, and is likely Liberal, given her outed job. Understood, but necessary?
I wonder, in the time it's been since this was posted, how many injuries plus deaths have occurred in proudly Right-Wing households due to not respecting a firearm properly? I'll bet a few more than this lady's actions caused, huh? So...
I guess if right-wingers feel it's appropriate to post their politics seemingly everywhere, whether it's germane, intelligent, or neither....
This lady was stupid, and is likely Liberal, given her outed job. Understood, but necessary?
I wonder, in the time it's been since this was posted, how many injuries plus deaths have occurred in proudly Right-Wing households due to not respecting a firearm properly? I'll bet a few more than this lady's actions caused, huh? So why aren't you off on news sites chortling on about how stupid and representative those injuries/fatalities are of those sharing your political positions?
I like Obama, btw. Best President in my lifetime, including JFK. Also I believe FDR's policies led directly to the great decades when US citizens were the happiest and our country was at its strongest and most influential in the world.
Now can you please stop posting your political crap where it's not wanted nor needed?
"she just proved michael savage was right.
liberalism is a mental disorder."
+1
Smoking (nicotine) can cause irrational behaviour (after all, you are smoking something known to cause cancer). This just highlights that point, I don't think anyone can dispute the behaviour shown is irrational.
I still want to know why she's flying coach, with all that damn oil well money!
Somebody so needs to hack that PSU website to add reference to this to her 'honors and awards'!!!
She may be able bail herself right out of jail, considering all the oil wells that she owns (thanks Hugo)..
She's a professor at a PUBLIC university funded by taxpayers. Its time to see what great quality educators we have in certain fields. All this PC hogwash from people offended is just comical.
I one up this: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/someone-did-a-shit-so-bad-a-british-airways-flight-had-to-turn-around-and-land-475?utm_source=vicefbca
Lucky,
I read your blog every day and enjoy it a lot. However, I think that linking to the lady's webpage and thereby alerting readers to her first and last name was really hitting below the belt.
Just posting the video would have been okay, but then calling her out by name and linking to her professional website was very un-classy of you. We don't know anything about this lady, and she could be going...
Lucky,
I read your blog every day and enjoy it a lot. However, I think that linking to the lady's webpage and thereby alerting readers to her first and last name was really hitting below the belt.
Just posting the video would have been okay, but then calling her out by name and linking to her professional website was very un-classy of you. We don't know anything about this lady, and she could be going through a mental illness or some other extenuating circumstances.
I'd ask kindly that you put a little bit more consideration and perhaps restraint in your posts where you seek to ridicule others.
Best,
Rich
According to the Penn State web site, linked in Luckys post, one of her teaching area is: "women and madness"...
At least she is teaching something she knows a lot about.
Is she crazy? She could have killed everyone on that plane! Everyone knows that smoking inside an airline will cause a crash!
Sean Penn probably paid her bail...
Crazy MOFo! How I hate this kind of twisted people.. yeah, her "hero" is the man who destroyed my country to the smallest pieces.. What she really deserves is a OW ticket TO Venezuela!
Drunk, maybe?
what I want to know is if she got fired or promoted for this rant....
First, she tried the tactic from her second book, "The Consumption of Inequality: Weapons of Mass Distraction," by blaming the other passenger, then tried to use the first book, "Webbing Vicissitudes of Forgiveness," when she knew she was getting arrested.
You can't make this stuff up!
Damn nutjob.
Sounds like the "doctor" forgot to take her meds.
Or perhaps decided to do some extra research on marijuana.
http://articles.philly.com/2001-04-20/news/25329867_1_marijuana-arrest-marijuana-users-norml
*clarify that I was agreeing TravelinWilly
The woman is definitely shy of a few brain neurons...but I see nothing in the video nor Lucky's post that justifies turning the comment section into a political platform.
I agree. Mental illnesses are everywhere and with anyone. This could be a case of a mental disorder and the girl who continues to chide her on behind the camera doesn't help the situation. It is easy to make fun but even more difficult to aide properly in this situation.
she just proved michael savage was right.
liberalism is a mental disorder.
You can't make this stuff up. Her dissertation is titled "Women's agency in Hysteria and its Treatment." In my experience It's these nutcases in the soft sciences that tend to be so adamant about being addressed as "doctor."
I kind of feel sorry for her.
Yeah, I don't think Obama have the time to declare war against any country in Latin America. He doesn't even have enough time to deal with Isis or Bengazi ! He is too busy at golf course!
Wow, how often do people try to get away with smoking on a plane?