Rant

One drunk UVA fan. That's all it takes to delay a plane full of people for two hours. I was returning from a trip to Atlanta last Wednesday evening. There was this guy waiting to board the flight who was quite drunk (wearing a UVA hat and sweatshirt) and creating, in the words of the gate agent, "a Jerry Springer" atmosphere. When it came time to board, he was the first one on - the gate agents apparently didn't want to have to deal with him any more. The rest of us were just praying that our assigned seats were not beside his. We all board and he is in the back row, not causing any apparent disruption. So, the plane taxis out to the runway and then the captian announces that we have to return to the gate to remove a passenger. We all knew which passenger, but we couldn't figure out why he was being removed now. We get back to the gate and a lady boards - she's not security or anything, just another gate agent - and asks the drunk Wahoo to get off the plane. He starts looking for his bag and can't find it - a fellow passenger found it for him. Then the guy refuses to get off the plane and starts cussing and yelling (there was a little girl and an elderly couple on the plane that I felt really bad for). This goes on for about 15 minutes, with all the other passengers trying to tell the guy to leave and everyone calling relatives to tell them we were being delayed by this drunk. I'm thinking where is security? What if this guy goes nuts? Security finally shows up, gets the guy off the plane, cuffs him and takes him away. Everyone applauds! Then the Captain come out (he had been hiding behind the cockpit security door the whole time) and apologizes saying that the guy had no business being on the plane, that they had had to remove him the from a flight the previous night in much the same manner. So our airport security is so good that the same drunk fool can get on board a plane and cause major delays two nights in a row?!?! We also hear from the flight attendant that he had been trying to light a cigarette an the plane while we were taxiing. The whole mess could have been prevented if he had been flagged beacuse of the previous night or if the gate agents had done their job and not let a disruptive passenger on the flight to begin with. Instead, the rest of us were delayed (including the lady beside me going to see her Dad for the first time in over 5 years) because the gate agents did want to deal with the problem themselves... ARGGGGG