Judy Putnam

Lansing State Journal

LANSING - If you’ve ever experienced a bad flight, listen to Julie Rojewski’s story. She might be able to top it because it’s a doozy.

The 40-year-old Michigan State University program manager said she was falsely accused of swearing, yelling and acting aggressively toward an American Airline flight attendant on a Washington, D.C.-Lansing flight Oct. 27.

She and two other passengers said the flight attendants were agitated, arguing with passengers and speaking rudely to them. But Rojewski said she became the main target when one flight attendant berated her and another scolded her, threatened to remove her from the plane and told her she would be placed on a watch list of belligerent passengers.

Rojewski, an East Lansing Girl Scout leader and mom of three, was stunned. She said she did nothing to provoke the accusations. She started a "Dear American Airlines" blog about the incident and wants the airline to investigate by contacting other passengers.

“It is not my goal to be some sort of consumer advocate who is best known for being yelled at on a plane,” Rojewski said. “…I feel strongly what I endured is completely unacceptable.”

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No comment

The airline declined comment about the American Eagle flight, operated by a subsidiary.

“Our customer relations team, in coordination with PSA Airlines, are looking into these allegations. We don’t have more to offer at this time,” said Ross Feinstein, an American Airlines spokesman, in an email.

American Airlines began flights in July to fill the gap left when Sun Country left the Capital Region International Airport earlier this year.

Rojewski also complained to the Federal Aviation Administration, which referred her back to the airline.

Rojewski was returning home from a conference. Her 5 p.m. flight had been delayed to 7 p.m. After boarding, she settled down into her window seat near the rear of the plane, put in her earbuds, and listened to a podcast of NPR's “This American Life.”

A half hour later, while still waiting for take-off, passengers were told the flight would again be delayed for repairs. Passengers grumbled. Rojewski heard a male flight attendant arguing with another passenger behind her. “Do you want to ride on a broken plane?” he asked.

Broken bathroom light

After an announcement that the repair was for a broken bathroom light, there was more grumbling. Rojewski said she commiserated with a passenger about another difficult flight. “That is a bit absurd,” she recalls saying.

That’s when she said a male flight attendant lit into her asking repeatedly: “Do you have a problem ma’am?” and “I will not have a belligerent passenger on this flight. I will not have you acting this way.” She said she wasn't even sure he was addressing her.

A few minutes later, another flight attendant, a female, told Rojewski she’s been identified as a belligerent passenger and the captain wanted to remove her from the flight. The flight attendant told her she can only stay on the flight as long as she promises to keep herself under control.

Upset but just wanting to get home, Rojewski said, she sat quietly. Toward the end of the flight, the female flight attendant approached her and said that she will be reported to the airline and placed on a list of belligerent passengers. When passengers around her spoke up, the attendant threatened to put them on the list, Rojewski recalled.

Zach Brooks, 31, a Washington, D.C. resident originally from Okemos, was seated next to Rojewski. He didn't know her but said he tried to stick up for her.

"I was sitting right next to her. They completely targeted her for no reason," Brooks said. He said others were jumping to her defense but the flight attendant, incredibly, dismissed them as being her friends.

"These were 20 people in the back of the airplane who had never met each other before," Brooks said.

Alessandra Hunt, an MSU colleague from Lansing, was on the same flight, two rows in front and across the aisle from Rojewski.

If Rojewski were yelling and acting aggressively, she would have heard it, Hunt said.

“In no way, shape or form did she threaten anybody,” she said.

Hunt heard the female flight attendant say she was going to put Rojewski on a list.

“That’s when the guy sitting next to Julie spoke up and said ‘no.’ He kept saying she didn’t do anything,” Hunt recalled. She called the whole incident weird.

Feinstein, the American Airlines spokesman, said he doesn’t know of a list of belligerent passengers, but that flight attendants do file reports about incidents on the flights.

Compelled to speak up

Is it a case of mistaken identity? Exasperated flight attendants taking it out on passengers? Rojewski said she doesn’t know.

Though she describes herself as private, Rojewski said she feels compelled to speak up. If this could happen to her, it could happen to someone else.

"I wasn’t flying home from Vegas. I’m wearing a slouchy sweater and sensible shoes. How threatening could I be? It’s almost hilarious,” she said.

She turned down a $300 voucher from American Airlines.

“I don’t ever intend to fly American Airlines again,” she said.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Write to her at300 S. Washington Square Suite #300 Lansing, MI, 48933. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.