There's a bizarre, perhaps "only in the skies," story in this New Yorker's Talk of the Town. During aan American Airlines filght from Paris' Charles de Gaulle to JFK Airport, a gay couple was asked to stop kissing/touching by a stewardess. The stewardess claimed that the purser wanted George Tsikhiseli and Stephan Varnier to stop "the touching and the kissing." The couple was shocked, as were neighboring passengers and fellow New Yorkers. Tsikhiseli and Varnier, joined by the passengers sitting behind them and who heard the exchange, Ralph Jackson and David Leisner, asked the purser, who then said she didn't make any such request.
The purser asked the men to describe what they’d been doing, and she acknowledged that their behavior had not been inappropriate. Tsikhiseli then asked if the stewardess would have made the request if the kissers had been a man and a woman. Suddenly, Leisner said, the purser “became very rigid.” Contradicting what she’d told them before, she stiffly said, “Kissing is inappropriate behavior on an airplane.” She then said that she was busy with the meal service and promised to come back.
Half an hour later, the purser returned, this time saying that some passengers had complained about Tsikhiseli and Varnier’s behavior earlier. The men asked more questions. Who had complained? (She couldn’t say.) Could they have the stewardess’s name, or employee number? (No.) Would the purser arrange for an American Airlines representative to meet them upon landing at J.F.K.? (Not possible.) Finally, the purser said that if they didn’t drop the matter the flight would be diverted. After that, Leisner said, “everyone shut up for a while.”
Then the captain told Tsikheisli that they had to stop their "arguing" and threatened to divert the plane if they didn't. Using plane diversions as a bargaining chip with questioning passengers - good one. American Airlines spokesperson told the New Yorker's Lauren Collins that kissing, whether straight or gay, might not be comfortable to passengers, though an American Airlines customer service rep said kissing was allowed.
You know, say what you will about seeing PDAs on the plane, but once they clamp down on affection, next thing you know, crying babies or achy passengers complaining about their feet will be why your flight from Europe was landed in Iceland, not back here. And we much prefer some affection than people screaming into their phones right before and after take-off. Those, "Hey, whatcha doin'? I'm on a plane!" calls are outta control!
