May 13, 2008
Man Claims Jet Blue Made Him Sit in Airplane Lavatory for Hours ($2 Million Lawsuit Included)
If this is what a Jet Blue "buddy pass" is, we totally pass. An Inwood resident is suing the Queens-based airline or $2 million, claiming a pilot made him sit on the plan's toilet for three hours during a flight from San Diego to New York earlier this year.
Gokhan Multhu was using a buddy pass (per the AP--the "standby travel voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends") and though the flight was full, since a flight attendant had taken the last seat, he was told he could have hers and she would sit in a jump seat. Yet an hour into the flight, Multhu says the pilot told him to give the seat back to the attendant, because she wasn't comfortable.
Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as swapping seats, because jump seats are only for airplane crew. From the NY Post:
The pilot said no - Mutlu should just "go and 'hang out' in the bathroom," the suit says. In the meantime, the stewardess took Mutlu's seat, "closed her eyes and pretended to sleep."Three hours later, Multhu says he was released from his lavatory exile--and that's only because there was turbulence. His lawsuit reads, "Plaintiff walked back to his seat embarrassed, humiliated, mortified, disgraced degraded and still shocked beyond belief." Yesterday, Multu confirmed, "It was not a good experience."When Mutlu began to argue, the pilot "became angry at the plaintiff's reluctance to go . . . to take his place in the rest room and took a much harsher tone with the plaintiff, advising him that he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command, and that the plaintiff should be grateful for being onboard," the suit says.
Jet Blue had no comment, saying it does not discuss pending litigation. It's unclear where "buddy pass" falls under the Jet Blue Customer Bill of Rights.
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You should have posted his picture. The guy looks like a terrorist, and if you saw him, you would understand why he was seperated from the passengers.
I think this is one of those silly lawsuits that end up costing society in the long run.
"the guy looks like a terrorist"
what? you are on crack jaja....
Inwood, NYC or Inwood, Nassau County?
He wants 2 million because his seat wasn't exactly what he wanted on a flight that cost him nothing? Fuck him! Next...
Jaja is obsessed with seeing people's pictures and subsequently making snap judgements.
jaja007-
please die in a fire, you racist asshole.
Thank you. I'm flattered you care so much about me. I love you too.
This guy will win easily. The airline handed him a boarding pass with the seat # on it. He was entitled to a seat with a seat belt for the duration of the flight the moment the flight took off. The pilot was endangering his life and the others on the plane by not allowing him to sit in a seat with a seat belt. The pilot was also inconveniencing the other passengers by effectively shutting one of the lavatories.
This isn't a matter of asking passengers to change seats as a pilot would have the prerogative to do if there was some thing that was disrupting cabin.
The right thing to do would have been to tell the flight attendant "tough luck we f*^ked up and over filled the flight" and now you have to use the jump seat because only you are cleared to sit in that seat.
The pilot just cost Jet Blue a butt load of money instead of maybe a first class voucher for the flight attendant.
BTW flew Virgin America for the first time and boy is their customer service great.
Jaja: Nice. Your icon looks like a terrorist.
Cowboys: It wasn't his fault that the ticket was free. The price he paid for the ticket is irrelevant. A passenger should not be forced to sit for 2-3 hours in a bathroom stall. Huge safety issue. If there weren't enough seats, he should not have been allowed to board. And it sounded like there were enough, just that the stewardess was uncomfortable.
BTW...when was the last time you saw airline crew in actual customer seats? They have there own.
If these are the facts, the guy totally has a case. Think if it were you. Would you suck it up in a stinky bathroom for 2 hours...for no legit reason?
Ugh, so nasty. He definitely should win this one. Whenever I use the restroom on a plane (or train, or bus), I hold my breath for as long as possible so as to avoid ingesting strangers' airborne poo particles.
With a name like Gokhan Multhu, you know he did something to deserve it. And WTF? He got a FREE TICKET. How many of his countrymen would give their third wife to be able to fly in America for free?
He should count his blessings that he's in the USA. God bless America.
Jetblue is really turning into a ghetto airline.
he's got a case and will win, no question. the pilot and attendant just lost their jobs, too. maybe it's time for jet blue to stop recruiting from the methadone clinic (no offense to his friend who got him the pass)?
i can only imagine them doing an "emergency landing" and having the department of "homeland security" rough him up plenty had he protested, too. i don't think i could have avoided causing an emergency landing if i were in his shoes.
jet blue seems to fuck up consistently, don't they? yeah, virgin does things right wrt service...
jaja, it was said once, and seems to be worth repeating: go die in a fire, you racist asshole.
and it's worth saying, just for you, that america sucks in far more ways than it should.
I would hope the FAA fines JetBlue a quarter million for endangering its passengers. Beyond that, JetBlue should fire its captain and settle with Multo for $50,000.
he will not walk with 2mil... he will take home, after law fees, $300-400K
they should have packed him in with the luggage, lucky to be allowed in the cabin with humans.
I think jaja is two posts away from saying Americans should be seated at the front of the plane and anyone else be thankful for having a seat (as opposed to hanging on to the wing).
Wow...aren't you edgy.
This guy has a case. If for nothing else, the seat belt safety point. Flight personnel are not paid to be nice (unfortunately), they are paid to ensure everyone's safety.
JetWhite has a history of post-9/11 racism, the most famous case of which involved a Middle Eastern man who was denied entry onto a JetWhite plane simply because his t-shirt had Arabic writing on it.
http://www.parkerstudio.com/AAW/JFK_story.html
I love how everyone just completely assumes that this story is even true. Let me see if this makes any sense to you: Someone comes up to your seat on an airplane and says to you "I'm tired, and I want your seat. Go sit in the bathroom for 2 hours".
Not sure about you guys, but I would not budge an inch and I'm pretty sure passengers around me would get rather angry as well. This would NEVER happen.
facted, did you even read any part of the article? It was the Pilot who told him to move.
facted,
if you disobey a direct order from any flight member, you're subject to arrest as soon as the flight lands. multhu did exactly what he should have done and he deserves every penny in this suit.
the pilot should be fired.
I agree if the pilot comes to your seat and tells you to do something, you generally do it. But there is no chance in HELL that the pilot told the guy to sit in the bathroom for a few hours. Think about it.
why not? he's an authority figure.
People have obeyed much worse orders.
i'm an avid buddy pass user so just as an FYI thing, here's the terms and conditions sent along with the standard buddy pass email:
It seems straightforward that the airline is at fault--regardless of who asked whom to do what--because they overbooked. Regardless of how a ticket is obtained, whether thru a buddy pass or a travel agent, it's a matter of capacity in the end. The airline admitted too many people on the plane. They're at fault.
I don't understand how this gets turned into an issue of this guy's nationality.
You wouldn't be angry if somebody told you to "go hang out in the bathroom" on a flight, instead of sitting in your seat. "Go hang out in the bathroom"!?! For three hours?
He may be lying...it'll be interesting to hear JetBlue's side of the story, but the longer JetBlue stays silent the more it seems that this guy's telling the truth. If he did something to provoke the pilot's action, why not just say that right away?
The company is either concocting a story, or figuring out how to settle this quickly and quietly.
This story is absolutely crazy. I'm wondering what the pilot thought what happen at the end of the flight. Did the pilot actually think that he wasn't going to get reported? How about the flight attendant? This story is so off the wall I'm thinking there *has* to be more to the story. Or maybe I'm just hoping that...
WTF?!
heres a brief rundown of what a buddy pass entails: it is not a confirmed seat, you have to fly standby. you still have to pay, but its a fee that's meant to offset fuel costs, so it depends on the length of the flight.
here's the strange part about this story: jetblue employees, whether uniformed or not, get priority over buddy pass users. if there was only one seat open on the plane, it should have gone to the employee. she had to have gone out of her way to help the guy out and take the jump seat (which is very uncomfortable, but as a flight attendent, she really should presumably be used to it). what's puzzling is what made her have a change of heart mid-air.. i think there's more to this story than what is actually being reported.
The pilot needs to go drive a schoolbus. But this lawsuit isn't the slam dunk that guy is hoping for: the airline has already suffered the negative press fallout from this incident so a huge settlement isn't likely; if the pilot is fired, that's proof of fault, but also of mitigation;and if he needed to take a shit at any point in his excruciating free flight, that makes him contributory and the money gets cut in half. I wish him well, and I hope JetBlue gets bought by someone who knows how to run an airline.
I'm confused as to how the Pilot told this guy to do anything. Shouldn't the pilot be flying the fucking plane?
Maybe the pilot was getting another round Gin and Tonics from the beverage cart.