American Eagle Pilot Tries To Amuse His Passengers And Fails

[Kor37 9]

American Eagle pilot tries to amuse his passengers and failsby Scott Carmichael Aug 24th 2008 @ 2:00PM

 

Passengers on American Eagle flight 4891 from New York's La Guardia airport en route to Cleveland were already running 2 hours late when the pilot asked the flight attendant to advise the passengers that the aircraft would be diverted to Toledo. The reason given was "an emergency has shutdown Cleveland Hopkins Airport".

 

Once the plane landed, passengers whipped out their mobile phones, expecting the need to make plans to get to their final destination, only to discover that the pilot had played a prank on them. There was no "emergency" and the plane has actually landed exactly where it was supposed to be.

 

Needless to say that some of the passengers didn't share his sense of humor. American Eagle has confirmed the incident, and claims the matter is now "a personal issue". Fingers crossed for the pilot that someone at HQ understands the need for a joke every now and then.

 

I've been on the receiving end of a couple of cockpit pranks before, but I can't say I've ever ran into a pilot who tricked his entire plane into thinking they were going to land somewhere else.

 

This was really stupid and could cost him his job.......

[trekz 7]

I read the news story & then read a number of reader comments. A number of people thought everyone should lighten up, laugh more & give the pilot a pass. Others, like me, brought up the points of stressing out parents with children, those worried about family members waiting for them, and possibly stressing people with health conditions. The idea that the pilot was acting unprofessional was also stressed, including the fact that the airlines don't see passengers "joke" as funny should not give this pilot a pass on his poor judgement.

[Indy 8]

Yeah, that was just not a very smart thing to do. Having had some not-too-pleasant exchanges with airlines recently, I think I would be informing that particular airline that I would not be flying with them anymore. (And I wouldn't be joking.)