A JetBlue passenger is seeking unspecified damages after an altercation with a flight attendant allegedly led to several physical injuries.
Angela Siddell, a 74-year-old grandmother from the Channel Islands, claims she was violently confronted by a flight crew. On her way from New York’s JFK Airport to Costa Rica, Siddell left with a black eye and other bruises all over her body, according to a suit obtained by The Daily Beast.
The suit says Siddell was traveling on Oct. 31 to celebrate her retirement when she was approached by cabin crew. According to the attendant, Siddell had thrown her tea cup, still full, in the galley instead of in a proper trash receptacle.
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The female attendant addressed Siddell in “an unusually loud and verbally aggressive manner,” the suit claims.
Because of this behavior, Siddell decided she would submit a written complaint to JetBlue. But when the passenger approached the female crew member to get her name or employee identification number, the JetBlue staffer refused. Other flight attendants also would not give Siddell their information, nor would they provide the captain’s name.
Cabin crew allegedly told Siddell that there was no complaint form, nor was there any paper on board for her to write down the incident. Siddell began recording a summary on the back of an air sickness bag.
Siddell says when she returned to the back of the aircraft to once again try to get the female employee’s name, the crew member “grabbed [her] wrist, while another JetBlue cabin crew member shoved [her] in the back with great force, pushing [her] body into the female crew member.” Siddell was then “shoved in the back again,” which caused her head to “violently strike one of the aircraft’s rear exit doors.”
Siddell was handcuffed by the flight crew. While the JetBlue staff was doing so, a “male cabin crew member physically applied pressure” to Siddell’s torso, causing her to have “extreme difficulty breathing,” according to the suit.
JetBlue diverted the flight to Orlando, Florida, where Siddell was forced off the plane. Upon landing, Siddell provided a statement to airport police. The officers cut off the handcuffs, and confirmed that the JetBlue employees had “secured the handcuffs excessively tight.”
Siddell is alleging that she “sustained bodily injuries, was incapacitated from employment and suffered pain, suffering, and mental anguish” because of the incident with JetBlue.
JetBlue did not respond to a request for comment.
