Pass The Peanuts

Very seldom does a cockpit crewmember have to get involved directly with a passenger in order to settle a particular issue.
In all these years at this airline, I can count on one hand the times that I've had to step in and attempt to diffuse a passenger problem.

After 9/11, the interaction between the cockpit crew and the passenger cabin has become even more insulated. If there is any kind of passenger problem inflight, the cabin crew is expected to deal with it and that's that! The cockpit door will not be opened under any circumstance. If it's a security issue, the pilots will defend the cockpit as necessary and continue to fly the airplane. If the particular situation in the cabin cannot be resolved and requires an unscheduled landing, then the pilots will proceed accordingly. If it seems like the cabin crew is left hanging, that is absolutely true. But the objective is to get the airplane safely on the ground as quickly as possible.

Medical situations are the most common form of inflight irregularity. Quite often a passenger will become ill and require immediate medical attention. If the attention they receive inflight doesn't correct or improve their condition, then sometimes an unscheduled landing is called for.

So with all that in mind, whenever there is a possibility of a potential inflight problem, the best course of action would be to deal with it before getting airborne. In other words, REMOVE the potential problem!

That was the case recently when we were just about ready to push back from DFW with a full boat headed for Maui. Five minutes prior to pushback the purser advised that we had a first class passenger that was traveling with his family and that one of his children had a peanut allergy. This passenger was insisting that he had advised the airline when he purchased his ticket of his child's condition, and that he was supposedly told that no peanuts would be served on the flight. The passenger was apparently making a scene.

The purser said that the passenger manifest showed no such information and that he was catered with cocktail nuts for the entire first class cabin. The purser also advised that the passenger was getting unruly and demanding that the cocktail nuts and any peanuts be removed from the aircraft.

OK....now what? You'd think that the captain would have the authority to make a decision right then and there, but that's no longer the case. At this airline, the captain only gets to make captain-like decisions once the flight is underway. It's ridiculous, but that's how it is. So I just stayed put in my seat for the time being.

So the first thing to do was to call the gate agent down to the plane and get her involved. Big mistake. All she did was infuriate the passenger even more. I know gate agents have an insufferable job and I sympathize, but her people skills were lacking this day. She and the passenger were having a shouting match on the jetbridge.

Next step was to call in a supervisor. No help there either. I could hear the shouting from the cockpit. The supervisor was rudely telling him that he and his family could get off the plane or basically take your seat and "shut up". The passenger was countering that he was a million mile customer and that the airline should do whatever was necessary to protect his child without regard to the rest of the first class passengers. This was going downhill in a hurry!

So by now we were 15 minutes late when the purser asked me if I would talk with this guy and see if I could influence him at all. The beach in Maui was waiting so I gladly accepted the challenge.

For emphasis, I put on my hat and walked out to meet this guy. I introduced myself and explained to him what the options were. I politely told him that I was expecting to operate the flight without any passenger issues and if there were going to be any, that they had to be resolved right then and there. I offered for him and his family to get off the plane and be re-booked or to stay on but with the assurance that if he caused any more problems, that we would be landing somewhere between DFW and the west coast to have him removed. He seemed to understand and was calming down.

It was then that he mentioned that he was traveling with an emergency epinephrine injection just in case his child had an allergic reaction. Seems like he could have mentioned that earlier!! So I asked him "Sir, are we going to have any more problems today?" He quietly said "no" and went back to his seat.

So I don't know if he was just intimidated by having the captain have to come out and talk with him or if he just wanted someone with a little authority to hear him out. Who knows. But the gate agent, supervisor, and purser all commented on how the mans demeanor changed dramatically when I came out to speak with him.
Perhaps it was my charming personality? Or maybe it was just the hat!!


So off we went!

Several times enroute I asked how the peanut family was doing and was told "no problems".


Amazingly, after we landed and everyone was getting off, the peanut guy approached me and apologized (sort of), and even thanked me for a good flight.

I think it was the hat!





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