Richard Calderoni was arrested after acting like a jerk on an airplane.
Tampa Tribune (“Tampa man charged with disturbing Key West flight“):
Tampa man is under arrest after authorities say his disruptive behavior scared passengers on a flight to Key West.
Deputies and agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection met the Silver Airways flight at the airport tarmac Saturday. Fifty-year-old Richard Calderoni was handcuffed and taken into custody as other passengers cheered.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Calderoni was loud and used abusive language on the flight.
He reportedly refused to turn off his electronic equipment and at one point stretched his legs into the aisle blocking a female flight attendant’s path. He allegedly made a sexual gesture when she looked at him.
The pilot told investigators he considered turning the flight around but decided to call law enforcement instead.
Calderoni has been charged with disturbing the peace.
Presuming the facts laid out above are substantially current, Calderoni is a putz and deserved to be hauled off in handcuffs. Aside from violating federal law in interfering with “flight crew,” which flight attendants are when acting in their capacity as enforcers of FAA regulations and not their capacity as waitresses, he was abusive and could very well have led to the flight being turned around and other passengers missing their connecting flights and otherwise being inconvenienced. That’s just not good citizenship.
Then again, maybe he’s a modern version of the William “D-FENS” Foster character from the Joel Schumacher-Michael Douglas vehicle Falling Down from two decades ago–just a working stiff driven over the edge by the stupidity of the system. I can’t explain to my 4-year-old why she has to shut off the iPad that keeps her contentedly occupied on flights beyond “those are the rules” and that she doesn’t have any choice but to comply if she wants to get to our destination. We all know it’s BS with no benefit whatsoever; hell, the pilots use iPads in the cockpit to do their jobs.
Still, as Sergeant Prendergast correctly points out, “that doesn’t give you any special right to do what you did today.”
via Robert Caruso
