Still Traveling

By bushdidit

January 25, 2006 9:29 AM | Link to this

Why wasn’t this disruptive passenger shot and killed by Air Marshals??????

His actions INSIDE THE PLANE WHILE IT WAS OPERATING were intensely more threatening than the other man two months ago killed by the Marshals.

Anyone explain this??? Perhaps no Marshals on this flight? Did he get lucky?

By REP

January 25, 2006 9:44 AM | Link to this

bushdidit…You can’t be serious. He bites a man, and that is more threatening than someone about to board a plane who claims to have a bomb and then takes off running through the terminal? Of course, your username says a lot about your view on things.

By bushdidit

January 25, 2006 10:17 AM | Link to this

A threat is a threat. Isnt this the way you black and white issue Repubs view all things?

Ill start the “what if” game with you since this is what happened when Rigoberto Alpizar was shot in cold blood.

“What if he DID have a bomb?” “What if he had run into the terminal?” “What if he tried to enter the cockpit?”

If you read the article about this man on the Fort Lauderdale flight, he DID try to enter the cockpit, he DID try to break windows on the plane compromising the safety of ALL PASSENGERS on this flight. YES these actions were indeed worthy of being shot.

So now the terrorists know you can do these actions on a flight WHILE OPERATING and get away with it with only a stun gun penalty.

SAD, but this is Bush’s Amerika.

By bushdidit

January 25, 2006 10:27 AM | Link to this

More details on the Fort Lauderdale incident.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sfear25jan25,0,1534170.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Man in Fort Lauderdale plane fracas has mental health problems

By Ken Kaye, Brian Haas & Akilah Johnson Staff Writers Posted January 25 2006

Before he went berserk on Continental Flight 408, Troy Rigby told fellow passengers he was claustrophobic.

He also suffered from schizophrenia, had been committed three times in the past two years to mental institutions and was headed to New Jersey to see a physician, family members said.

That information, revealed on Tuesday, provided insight into why Rigby, 28, sprang from his seat, pounded on the cockpit door, broke the inner pane of the exit-door window and bit one of the passengers, who rushed to stop him on Monday.

He still managed to force the door open and leap about 10 feet to the tarmac, where Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies subdued him with Tasers.

Rigby was formally charged on Tuesday with three counts of battery, trespassing, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. He was held on $8,000 bail and taken to an intensive psychiatric unit of the North Broward County jail.

He had been working as a roofer after moving from Irving, N.J., to Pompano Beach in early August.

In the post-9-11 era, authorities said they must prosecute anyone who threatens an aircraft — or, if necessary, use lethal force.

Last month, federal air marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, of Maitland, after he claimed he had a bomb while on board an American Airlines flight in Miami.

NOTE: THE BOMB CLAIM HAS BEEN DISPUTED BY MULTIPLE PASSENGERS ON THE AA FLIGHT

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, passengers disrupted U.S. flights about 300 times a year, either out of anger, anxiety or mental problems. While no current figures were available, aviation authorities said the number of incidents has dropped because of tight security.

Lauren Stover, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said aviation security has several layers to protect against violent passengers, including impenetrable cockpit doors, pilots armed with guns and sky marshals.

But she noted that federal agents must take whatever action is necessary to protect a plane.

“If people have some sort of disorder, it’s still incumbent on them and their families to safeguard themselves,” she said.

Rigby boarded Flight 408, bound for Newark, with 115 other passengers and five crew members, hoping to depart Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport about 3:25 p.m.

But a 30-minute air traffic delay forced the Boeing 737 to hold on the ground near the runway, and that apparently triggered Rigby’s outburst, passengers said.

“He just bolted to the front and he just flew off the [cockpit] door when he hit it,” said Paul Sigler, the passenger who was bitten and suffered a broken bone in his right hand trying to restrain the man.

Sigler described Rigby as “crazed, anxious, wide-eyed and panicked” as he kept hitting the cockpit door. At least three other passengers and a flight attendant tried to stop the rampage but they couldn’t pin him down, he said.

“Let me go. Let me go. Let me outta here,” Sigler quoted Rigby as yelling. “That’s all he kept saying: He wanted off. `I’m claustrophobic, and I need to get off the plane.’”

After Rigby escaped the plane, deputies chased him. After one deputy’s Taser failed, a second deputy Taser-shot him multiple times. He still fought, the report said, bruising one deputy.

No sky marshals were on the plane at the time, federal authorities said. If there had been, they would have intervened as soon as Rigby approached the cockpit door, said Dave Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service.

Initial reports said the plane’s pilot depressurized the cabin, allowing Rigby to open the door. But Continental spokesman Martin Deleon said that is not confirmed, and he said the plane might not have been pressurized at that point.

Rigby’s uncle, David Rigby, of Pompano Beach, issued a statement Tuesday, saying the family regrets what happened on the Continental flight and apologizing to the airline, the passengers and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

But he also noted, “Within the past week, Troy, who was visiting from New Jersey, started complaining of extreme migraine headaches and problems sleeping at night. Based on the fact that he had a nervous breakdown in his not too recent past, he wanted to go home to consult his physician, and that’s why he was on that flight.”

David Rigby added that his nephew has no history of violence or claustrophobia, “so his actions on that flight came as a complete shock to all of us.”

On the other hand, Merlene Rigby of Miami, Rigby’s sister, said her brother has a history of both mental illness and not taking his medications.

“He’s a diagnosed bipolar schizophrenic,” she said.

Rigby moved to his uncle’s Pompano Beach home to start over and came to love his job as a roofer, she said.

“He likes to be at work and work very hard,” Merlene Rigby, 39, said. “That’s Troy.”

On Sept. 29, Troy Rigby was charged with a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession, court records show. Deputies served the warrant for that charge on Monday, after the plane incident.

Merlene Rigby said she didn’t know about the marijuana charge. But she said she knew her brother changed in just the past week.

“He called my mother Sunday and told her, `Goodbye, I’ll see you on the other side,’” she said.

Because of her brother’s bizarre behavior, Merlene Rigby said she was horrified that a relative had put Rigby on a plane.

“I said, `No, you can’t put Troy on a plane with people. He needs to be in a hospital,’” she said. “As I said that, that’s when all hell broke loose.”

Deleon, of Continental, said the plane departed at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

By bushdidit

January 25, 2006 10:31 AM | Link to this

No Air Marshals on flights into Newark!?!?!?

Newark, the metro New York City airport that terrorists used on 9/11.

Great planning Homeland Security!!!! Heckuva job!!!

By kraig

January 25, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this

I bit into a hot dog with veins once. I havent been the same since.

By Kat

January 25, 2006 11:16 AM | Link to this

OK, back to the question at hand… A ticket agent in Italy accidentally threw my husband’s plane ticket in the trash then insisted she had given it back to us. We spent several minutes searching for it while trying very hard not to panic. It was nearly time for our flight to leave, we were in danger of missing a connecting flight in Paris, and trying to overcome a language barrier to convince the agent and her supervisor that she had never handed the ticket back to us. Finally my husband remembered seeing her put the stickers on the luggage, then sweep the backing from the stickers off of her desk into the trash can. He asked her to look in the trash, and there was his ticket. The airline employee was gracious enough to apologize and have them hold the plane at the gate while we went through security. OK, nobody got bitten in this story, but it’s as close as I ever want to come to a travel disaster.

By MS

January 25, 2006 12:02 PM | Link to this

My husband and I took a cruise on a major line two years ago. This was something special we had planned since when we were married we really didn’t get a honeymoon.

All was well until we met our tablemates for dinner. There was a single fellow, two older ladies traveling together, and a family of three. The family was the problem. This family consisted of two adults in their late 50s and their daughter who was in her late 20s or early 30s who clearly had some kind of mental problem.

The first night, the daughter (I will call her “Katie”) threw a fit when her entree was not in the first group that was delivered. She actually reached across the table and screamed at me, and then put her fist into my vegstables, grabbed some and shoved them in her mouth. The parents did NOTHING. They didn’t even apologize. When her food came, she settled down and ate, but the father told the waiter to make sure her food came out first in the future.

After that night, my husband went to the Matre’d and asked if we could be reseated. He explained his concerns but was told all seatings were full. The Matre’d did promise to speak to the family privately and see if there was anything they could do to make the daughter more comfortable. So, we went back the next night.

This time, things were worse, and our other tablemates were not present, so it was just us and this family. My husband ordered a bottle of wine for the two of us before the family arrived. When they did, Katie grabbed the bottle and poured herself some in her water glass. Her mother laughed, but didn’t apologize. She then went on to brag about how they take Katie everywhere with them, and how people are so rude to her and not sympathetic to her condition.

Dinner was served and Katie grew impatient when the busboy didn’t keep her soda filled to the brim. She would take a sip or two, then fuss until he came to refill it. Again, her parents pretended this didn’t happen. Then the entrees came out…the waiter was careful to bring Katie’s first, and then the rest of us waited, and waited. When ours finally came out, they were cold. Katie thought this was hysterical and threw her garnish at my husband, leaving a nasty smear mark on his shirt. We excused ourselves, left our food, and walked out of the restaurant.

After getting something to eat from the poolside buffett, and missing out on the filet mignon that I really wanted, we went to the Pursuer’s desk to see if anything could be done. He again said that seatings were full, and that we were not the first to complain about this family. He offered to send our meals to our cabin, and we told him we’d give it one more day. He also said that he would speak with the family.

The following night was the last straw. Katie’s family was already seated when we arrived, and the table was made considerably smaller (I guess the others were just not coming back). Katie was seated next to me and her father. When the salad arrived, her mother made a snotty remark about people who don’t understand special needs children. I smiled and bit my tongue. Then Katie decided that she had had enough of her salad and dumped it on my lap. She laughed as I nearly broke into tears as my gown was drenched in olive oil! My husband and I returned to our cabin and called the Pursuer again. He said he’d send our meal up right away, get my gown cleaned, and apologized. I begged him to find us another table, another seating, another dining room for the last four nights. He said we were his “top priority.”

Unfortunately, because this was a cruise during the holiday season, it was packed. He wasn’t able to do that for us, and the rest of the week we ate dinner in our cabin. It was quite a disappointment from the cruise-dining room atmosphere we really wanted.

Incidentally, we spoke with our former tablemates. They had all just decided to find other places on the ship to eat. And one final note, on the following day at sea, we saw Katie at the pool screaming at small children because she wanted to use the waterslide, and was told she had to wait. Nothing was done about this, either—by her parents or the cruise staff.

I don’t know that the cruise line could have done anything for us, or if there are any guidelines on cruise ships for guest behavior. I understand that Katie had problems, but it is clear that her parents just let her behave however she’d like—throwing food, screaming, etc—without any regard for anyone else on the ship.

Talk about a “dream vacation.” And I’m sure someone out there will say how difficult it is to have an adult child with special needs, but I’m not faulting Katie for being disabled. I’m faulting her parents for her atrocious behavior, since they ignored it consistently.

Oh, and they were from Atlanta, too.

By FedUp with Brats

January 25, 2006 1:02 PM | Link to this

to MS - I live near Atlanta and I hate it!

I used to live in Texas, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and a few other states. And I have a few stories to tell!

Northern Atlanta, Georgia: Believe it or not, I glanced down a grocery store aisle and saw a brat in soccer kleats KICKING his mother down the aisle with his kleats raising a bloody ruckus o’er CANDY! What’s worse is that his mother gave in and cried, begged, and caved in instead of applying any sort of discipline.

Round Rock, Texas: Secondly, In Texas, I used to work with the police… We attended a 24-hour McDonald’s at 2am because of a middle-aged man hefted his shotgun from the rear seat of his car to the forehead of the drive-thru clerk… because - get THIS - the kid’d accidentally tabbed on a sixty-cent coffee to the man’s order. Lucky for the kid, the fast-witted manager snuck up and yanked him down and away before a single bullet got fired. A kid almost got killed o’er 60 cents!

St. Augustine, Florida: But there’s MORE - I was ran into by a car operated by a screaming old man raging at his wife, cellular phone… and me. My awful crime? I was walking down the side walk when his car pulled up to en entry to the Postal Office to exit the lot… and I stopped in front of his car to take a breath right when traffic cleared. Right then, I started back up and the man lead-footed the accellerator. Not only did this man NOT stop, I felt the car accellerate even MORE as I slid off the hood to the left as he turned right. My breath was taken when I fell out into the path of the second car. Please do not ever go to St. Augustine FL!

What you saw consists of three dangerous things: 1. Permissive Parenting 2. Passive-Agressiveness 3. and the Entitlement Mentality

All three combined in normal-capacity children has created serial killers and criminals out of otherwise productive kids.

Who am I and what right do I have to write here… I was born in a counseling family. I have three attorneys, two former nurses, and three with degrees in psychology.

MS - With regards to your case… If the parents don’t care if their BRAT misbehaved, then they shouldn’t care if you take leave to the lavetory and have a little “chat” with her about her behavior..

Heck - I’d have done what she did straight back at her, or found some way of utterly humiliating the life out of the aging parents… I don’t care - I’ve been stepped on so many times I’ve had it with that sort of nonsense!

What I would do is publicly “divorce” myself from that wench, her mate, and her brat. First I would stare down that old bag and I would explicitly state this: “If she did not step up to the plate and stop NEGLECTing her child, then I will REPORT her to the Department of Childrens Services and have the brat institutionalized for her own safety…” Foster Care moms don’t tolerate much by way of bad behaviour! I would then dig into the child and reiterate the little horror stories we get to read about state foster care all the while asking if that is what the child wants. THEN I would loudly proclaim my divorce of this family as tablemates whilst displaying the damage done by the child and loudly listing THAT out, too. I’d turn them into a circus act for amusement display!

I’ve mobbed a high school principal into foreced RE-retirement, publicly beat a city attorney at a public debate, and have been on the TV & in the papers numerous times for things I’ve done & said.

Squish! ~ FedUp

By whatthehell

January 25, 2006 1:18 PM | Link to this

fed up with brats. You are a retard.

By Lou

January 25, 2006 1:39 PM | Link to this

All Katie neded was a good old fashion butt whuppping.

By Jo

January 25, 2006 2:23 PM | Link to this

MS, not only does my heart go out to you & your husband but I am APPALLED. Honey, you paid good money to take that cruise & the staff seemed to care very little for your comfort & enjoyment. Did you at the very least get a voucher for a free cruise in the future? I’d certainly hope so! And I’m sick & tired of everyone bending over backwards for “special needs children” & the “mentally disabled”. Not only can’t these people contribute to society but they’re also a drain on our resources & often violent & destructive. Sorry, but “Katie’s” irresponsible parents never should have had her but that’s the uber-breeder mentality for you; CHI-I-I-ILDRUN are SUCH a joy, no matter WHAT!

By John

January 27, 2006 12:51 PM | Link to this

DELTA deals another blow to FF At the end of 2006 all miles in FF program will be clumped together. What a pathetic way to treat Loyal FF. “Old miles” were gained only by flying legs and accumulating miles. Right now I can fly first class (rt) domestic for 25,000 miles. It takes 45,000 ( minimum) new miles. So how can Grinstein and the {Executives of Excess} justify exchanging “old miles” for equal numbers of new miles.(planned for Dec 2006) The trade, if needed, should be 1.00 mile of “old” to 1.75 miles in new. That would show appreciation and would be fair. We “Loyal,Medallion, MMMs are the ones who paid the full price for all those years and it is we who are getting the “Royal Screwing”

By MS

January 27, 2006 8:01 PM | Link to this

I complained to the cruise line (in writing) but their response was that it is “the caregiver’s responsibility to ensure that the special need’s passenger behaves in a manner accepted by the traveling public.”

It angers me that I pleaded with them to do something while we were on the ship and they didn’t…probably because they were afraid of a lawsuit or something.

By Thomas Looney

February 7, 2006 3:53 PM | Link to this

Delta flight # 652 — Just Add Kool-Aid On Jan.30,2006 I was on a 4 hour Delta flight full of adults returning from vacationing in Mexico. As we all settled in for the-passenger packed-over booked- old plane- non-stop flight, little did we understand we all were about to become a victim of the dreaded “Delta Attitudeâ€?. As the flight attendants began to serve the usual liquid flavors in their favorite undersized plastic cups (my doctor offers a larger cup for a urine sample), the in-flight movie began. Much to the surprise of the entire high dollar paying passenger’s (it cost me 60,000 FF-miles, a good deal I was told by Delta), the movie was a CARTOON !!!!! . The whole plane fell silent, most wondering – was this a joke or was Delta this out of touch with their paying clients. Let’s see – adults paid for the over priced tickets- packed plane- 15-20 year old plane- 4 hour flight- stale pretzels- plastic under sized cups (no cans please, they might be used as a weapon)- “Yepâ€? this is the Delta management style which has lead them into bankruptcy. Obviously Delta management must be working with the military government on a top-secret physiological hostage program and was trying this torture on us. What a great way to kill a pre-2 hour “buzzâ€?. As the plane remained silent and the “cartoonâ€? began to play, the flight attendant asked me what I would like to drink. In my own comical / deep loud business voice I replied, “May I have Kool-Aid pleaseâ€?. The whole plane erupted in laughter, leaving the attendant puzzled. Again, I quickly ask for Kool-Aid “pleaseâ€?, I could hear the Kool-Aid expression being passed on to the back of the plane with continued laughter. Sensing the attendant did not understand the laughter or my request, I simply explain. “As a parent, when my child would watch cartoons I would bring her Kool-Aid to drink and if Delta was going to treat paying adults passengers like children, then I just needed some Kool-Aid. Between the few applause, laughter and a couple “amenâ€? from fellow passengers, the attendants quickly became aware of their embarrassing situation. If looks could kill, I would have been shot between my eyes by the flight attendants stare. Needless to state, the flight attendants did not find humor in my request nor do I in Delta’s customer care. Upon deplaning there was a Delta flight attendant waiting at the concourse door asking passengers if we would sign a petition supporting them in reviving the 911 security “carry onâ€? items restriction (nail-clippers, tooth picks, lighters, ECT…)? “No Wayâ€? was my reaction when asked and several fellow passengers agreed. As I started to leave the concourse I could not help but give this die-hard Delta employee some common sense advice. 1st—- If Delta flight attendants are truly afraid about their work place becoming a â€?hostile environmentâ€?, look at “WHOâ€? is making their passengers become hostile. (earth to delta —- hello — hello—anyone listing ???) 2ed – Just add Kool-Aid because if Delta continues to treat frequent flyers as children ——- see rule # 1