On Monday afternoon, somewhere over Colorado, I was watching television in seat 17F aboard a JetBlue flight from San Francisco to Boston when I happened to flip by a news channel that was covering a breaking news story out of JFK. With the camera panning around airport and then stopping at a plane with the JetBlue logo on the tail, I started to pay extra careful attention. As I listened to the story being told by the newscaster, the story caught the eye of my row-mate who was quickly scrambling to find the story on his own headrest-top box.
I soon found myself in hysterics, as they recounted a tale of flight attendant that berated a passenger over the intercom, grabbed some beer and used the emergency slide to exit the plane. At this point my row-mate finally found the channel, but only managed to hear the second half — leaving him fairly baffled.
Moments later, one of our own flight attendants walks by and noticed that a few people were watching this story on the news, so she had stopped to ask what was going on. The gentleman in row 16 re-told the story to the crew, to which they couldn’t believe it.
I love the media coverage of this incredibly bizarre story (which just seems to get even more bizarre every day). Everyone seems to know all of the strange facts about the story and freely shares their thoughts on the situation. But what I’ve found to be the most entertaining is JetBlue’s response to the ordeal, which came earlier today in the form of a blog post entitled “Sometimes the weird news is about us”:
“It wouldn’t be fair for us to point out absurdities in other corners of the industry without acknowledging when it’s about us. Well, this week’s news certainly falls into that category. Perhaps you heard a little story about one of our flight attendants? While we can’t discuss the details of what is an ongoing investigation, plenty of others have already formed opinions on the matter. Like, the entire Internet…”
It took JetBlue about 2 full days before they commented on the event and according to a New York Times article, that’s unheard of in PR land. They could’ve chosen from a dozen different ways with how to handle this story, though I feel they completely did the right thing. By admitting the truth about how they found the story just as humorous and strange as the next person, it fits so perfectly with the personality of the JetBlue brand.
Personally, I like JetBlue. When it comes to choosing an airline, they’re my second choice, but only because Richard Branson’s Virgin Empire will never cease to amaze me. But honestly, I try to fly them whenever possible and have always had a great experience. I applaud JetBlue for the way that they have dealt with this situation.. it’s the rest of those rude airline passengers that started this whole situation in the first place that I’m starting to lose respect for.
