Police Remove Honest Woman From Frontier Airlines Jet Exit Row

They say honesty is the best policy. Well, here’s an example of where that’s not the case, and where just saying “yes” is the best policy.

Frontier passenger removed over exit row kerfuffle

Video footage is going viral of a Frontier Airlines passenger being removed from a recent flight from Charlotte (CLT). This woman was lucky enough to get a seat in the exit row, which is typically considered the most desirable seating in economy, thanks to the extra legroom offered.

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The catch, of course, is that if you sit in the exit row, you have to agree that you’ll assist the crew in the event of an emergency. During the exit row briefing, a nearby passenger claimed that this woman responded to the request to help in an emergency by saying:

“Oh, I’m not going to save anybody. If something happens, I’m going to save myself.”

LOL. I mean, I give her credit for being honest, because I imagine that’s what most people in the exit row would actually do. You’re also not supposed to take any personal belongings with you when you evacuate a plane, yet every time we see footage of an evacuation, a large percentage of passengers are taking all their belongings down the slide.

Furthermore, ultimately if the woman in the exit row saves herself, that’s also saving others. The job of the person in the exit row is to open the emergency exit and then get off the plane. It’s not like the person in the exit row is supposed to be the last person off the jet.

But of course the crew needs to hear you say “yes,” even if there’s nothing to it. In this case, when the crew explained that to this woman, she apparently nodded her head, rather than saying “yes.”

The crew wasn’t having any of it, so that’s when the situation escalated:

• When asked if there’s a problem, the woman states “we ain’t got no problem with that, we understand we gotta help people get off the plane”
• The woman then tells the flight attendant that she’s “wasting her breath” by continuing to talk to her
• The woman is then asked to leave the plane, but refuses, and then picks up the phone to call her attorney, and enjoys a snack
• The pilot then shows up, and she still refuses to leave the plane, asking what crime she committed
• After talk with several more employees (from flight attendants, to gate agents, to the pilot), police eventually show up
• Since she refuses to leave the aircraft, all passengers have to deplane, and then the woman is taken off the plane in cuffs by police, and is placed in a car on the apron

You can see the interaction below, though note that this doesn’t include the initial discussion where she reportedly said that she was going to save herself first.

I almost find this woman’s honesty endearing

Airline crews don’t have it easy. In the case of an exit row briefing, they also have very clear policies they need to follow. Passengers need to provide verbal confirmation that they’re willing to assist the crew in the case of an emergency, and if they don’t, the crew can’t let them sit there. It’s as easy as that.

The unfortunate part is that this woman was no less capable of sitting in the exit row than anyone else. Most people don’t choose to sit in the exit row because they’re excited to help others evacuate, but rather because they want more legroom. As long as you open the exit door correctly, you can evacuate from the plane, and you can be the first to save yourself (if that’s how you want to think of it).

This woman clearly had no bad intentions, but of course that doesn’t change the fact that people need to cooperate with crews:

• Airlines can kick you off a plane regardless of whether or not you committed a crime, so this is different than law enforcement removing you from a public place
• Once a crew asks you to get off the plane, just follow their instructions, because refusing will absolutely not get you anywhere

Now, I can’t help but wonder if this situation could have been deescalated a bit better by the crew, since there’s no footage of the first part of the incident. For example, let’s say the conversation started something like this (and we have reason to believe it did):

“Are you willing and able to assist the crew in the case of an emergency?”
“Oh, I’m not going to save anybody. If something happens, I’m going to save myself.”

There are two directions the crew could go in this case:

Option 1: “Do I need to remove you from this aircraft?”
Option 2: “Per regulations, I need a verbal ‘yes’ that each person in the exit row is willing to assist. Keep in mind that if you’re the one to open the exit in an emergency, you can also be the first off the plane. So can you give me a verbal ‘yes?'”

It’s possible that better deescalation techniques could have been used, but once this person became fully uncooperative with the crew, they had no option but to remove her.

Bottom line

While people get removed from flights all the time, usually it’s because they’re acting completely out of line. In this case, an incident arose because a woman answered honestly regarding helping in the exit row. Crews need verbal confirmation that people are willing to help in the exit row, and this woman responded by saying that she was going to save herself.

I imagine that’s what most people would do, and for that matter, helping the crew and helping yourself are often one in the same. But still, that’s not how that works…

What do you make of this Frontier Airlines incident?