Police called to meet flight due to 'verbally abusive' teen

[article]

HOUSTON, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Houston police were called to meet an arriving flight at Hobby Airport on a report of a foul-mouthed teenager, but no arrests were made, airport officials said.
Darian Ward, spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said officers met the Southwest Airlines flight from Albuquerque when it arrived at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, but they determined there was no serious threat and no arrests were made, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Ward said officers determined the situation was "no big deal."

Police spokesman Victor Senties said a 16-year-old passenger became irate and swore at a flight attendant after refusing to comply with repeated requests to remove his headphones.

 

I wonder why they wanted him to remove his headphones, Southwest has a gate to gate personal electronics policy nowadays.

 

No reason to be verbally abusive to a FA. The punk should have been arrested IMO.

 

Maybe for safety reasons? When something goes wrong during landing/takeoff, you might not hear the instructions from the FA as well with your headphones on? I was told to remove my earphones as well although they weren't connected to any music device. They were noise-cancellation earphones but they insisted that I removed them.

 

There's absolutely no reason to be verbally or physically abusive to anyone... I wasn't there but if someone was being verbally abusive to a fellow airline employee I would not tolerate that kind of behavior.

 

As an afterthought, and no, we weren't there so we don't know all that happened, but...........! Isn't there a federal law/regulation about not obeying a flight crew's directive? If the foul mouthed punk had to be told more then just once or twice (noted in the article about "repeated requests"...), for whatever reason, to remove his headphones and didn't comply, isn't that reason enough to let him cool his heels and mouth in the cooler for a bit?

 

Sounds like overly officious flight attendants... I have been on a ton of airplanes, even before the policy change, where the entire cabin is wearing headsets during take off and landing. Virgin America, JetBlue, business class. Doesn't excuse cursing the flight attendant. The Alaska Airlines policy even mandates the use of headphones:
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/travel-info/on-board/onboard-guide.aspx

 

That policy mentions that you have to use headphones instead of external speakers... not exactly the same as mandating to use headphones during takeoff/landing.

 

Reread the section, here are the relevant excerpts:

"The following electronic items are considered small PED’s and are always permitted onboard our aircraft...acceptable for use at all times, including take-off and landing... Headphones must be worn when using electronic devices with external speakers... DVD Players"

Reading this it seems to me that I can use a DVD player during take-off and landing, but that I have to use headphones.