In response to Alec Baldwin’s claim that American Airlines kicked him off of a flight for merely playing Words With Friends on his phone after a flight attendant had called for all electronic devices to be powered down, the airline issued a statement this afternoon on Facebook alleging that there was a little more to it than that.
Since an extremely vocal customer has publicly identified himself as being removed from an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Dec. 6, we have elected to provide the actual facts of the matter as well as the FAA regulations which American, and all airlines, must enforce. Cell phones and electronic devices are allowed to be used while the aircraft is at the gate and the door is open for boarding. When the door is closed for departure and the seat belt light is turned on, all cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off for taxi-out and take-off. This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane’s lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding.
Wow that must have been one hell of a Words With Friends game Baldwin was embroiled in! To lock oneself in the sh*tter of an airplane just so that one’s phone-Scrabble game wouldn’t be interrupted is either an act of a passionate man or a clinically insane one. Given Baldwin’s numerous past acts of a$sholery, I’m gonna go ahead and side with the hated multi-national corporation and lean toward the latter.
Additionally, for reasons I have been completely unable to comprehend, Baldwin deactivated his Twitter account today.
No, this doesn’t make him look like even more of a crazy person. At all. Somebody please make Alec Baldwin take his meds. He obviously needs them.
Meanwhile, coffee is still for closers only, in case you were wondering.