A new report in the Huffington Post alleges that Delta Air Lines literally trapped its flight attendants onboard to prevent a possible walk-out during a lengthy delay on the tarmac.
Airline officials apparently ordered the cabin doors closed and locked on a recent flight leaving its hub in Atlanta for fear that its flight attendants—already having worked the full or close to the maximum hours allowed for a 24-hour period—would walk off.
Just as with pilots, airlines have their own rules on how long flight attendants can work.
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Internal documents provided to the Huffington Post showed a message from an employee at Delta’s operations control center to the gate agent handling the flight. It read: “Do not open door. flt attendants out of time and none available. let [maintenance] do their work without opening door thanks.”
A follow-up message read: “Ok… if door is not closed by [11 p.m.] Flt attendants walking. We will most likely have to delay flight until morning if this happens.”
Someone in the flight tower responded, “Copy.”
While the Huffington Post alleges these are actual conversations among Delta workers, the website noted it could not locate any crew members who worked the flight—believed to be a May 12 flight between Atlanta and Toronto—and admitted the source who provided the messages is not a Delta employee.
But a Delta spokesperson acknowledged the incident to Huffington Post, saying that the door was opened after the maintenance was done and flight attendants could have walked off that point. Apparently, they chose to remain and work the flight.
Flight 1990 on May 12 left Atlanta nearly three and a half hours after it was scheduled to, at 11:27 p.m., and arrived in Toronto at 1:30 a.m.
“Operating an airline is a team effort and the guidance shared in this exchange does not reflect the respect and collaboration we expect of our employees when making operational decisions,” Delta said in a statement to the HuffPost. “Delta’s unique culture is built on supporting one another and that didn’t happen in this case. We have followed up directly with the team members involved to address this situation.”
