By Abigail Headley
A misunderstanding onboard an American Airlines (AA) aircraft, between Guyanese cultural activist, Joel Ghansham and a flight attendant on Tuesday night led to the plane returning to the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York, about two hours after it had taken off from there.
AA yesterday told Stabroek News that the flight had returned to JFK because of a “disruptive customer”.
Prior to the flight’s return to ground, the cabin crewmember had informed Ghansham that he had the power to turn the flight around, to which Ghansham had asked if the staffer was God.
Ghansham, who dresses flamboyantly, also told Stabroek News (SN) that he was dressed to impress and when he went to catch his flight he noticed some of the flight crew rolling their eyes at his appearance, which he ignored as he was accustomed to such reactions from people.
“When I got on the flight, I told him [the attendant in question] my seat number and he said ‘okay’ and continued about his business,” he stated. It was shortly after being ignored by the flight attendant that Ghansham made the request to have his luggage placed in the overhead cabin and was rebuffed by the same attendant.
In relaying what transpired during the short flight, Ghansham told Stabroek News that a few months ago he underwent surgery to his spine due to a childhood injury that affected his neck. As a result, he asked the flight attendant to assist him with putting his luggage in the overhead cabin, to which the response was “no, I don’t do that. I’m not being paid to do that”. At this point Ghansham said he leaned in closer to the cabin crew member in question and attempted to explain about his injury but the response remained the same. He related that another flight attendant subsequently came and rendered assistance with the luggage.
Ghansham continued that after liftoff, while they were seated, the same flight attendant passed his seat whilst serving beverages then leaned back to ask whether he would like something to drink.
“He asked me if I wanted something to drink but I didn’t respond because I didn’t want to cause a scene, and he asked again and I said ‘no thank you, waiter’,” he said, and explained that to this the flight attendant responded that he was not a waiter and he had the power to turn the plane around.
A little while after Ghansham proceeded to ask the attendant if he was God to have such powers, passengers were told that they would be landing again at JFK Airport. No explanation was given as to why, he said.
After the plane landed, a law enforcement officer boarded the plane and entered the business class section where Ghansham was seated. Upon seeing the officer, he said he indicated to him that it must be related to him. Ghansham continued that the officer approached him and asked some questions, including whether or not there was a physical altercation between him and the flight attendant. When the response was no, Ghansham related that the officer seemed surprised that such a small issue caused the flight to return. He subsequently let Ghansham go without taking a statement from him.
“If I was rude or belligerent wouldn’t they have arrested me?” he surmised.
Ghansham explained that prior to the initial liftoff, the flight had been delayed three times already for the night. The flight was scheduled to leave JFK at 5:29 PM but ended up leaving at around 7:53 PM. He also noted that among the witnesses to some of what transpired between him and the flight attendant was the wife of Guyana’s Commissioner of Police.
It is understood that passengers on the flight were not given an explanation as to why the flight had returned to JFK (most were not even aware of what had transpired between their fellow passenger and the flight crew member) and were forced to call relatives to pick them up from the airport after having to disembark the flight.
This newspaper contacted AA to find out exactly what the cause of the unexpected return was and whether or not passengers will be compensated for the inconvenience. They responded with a short statement:
“American Airlines flight 2557, with service from New York (JFK) to Georgetown, Guyana (GEO), returned yesterday to JFK due to a disruptive customer. Safety and security are our top priorities, and we thank our customers for their understanding and our team members for their professionalism in managing a difficult situation”.
The company’s International Communications representative, Laura Masvidal, also added in the correspondence that the “flight was initially delayed by approx. two hours due to weather delays”.
In the past week and even prior, social media has seen a number of AA passengers complaining about delays to their flights.
