Beernuts

Worst passenger ever:

This asswhole storms off the jet when a couple of items aren't in perfect working order and belittles the crew.

I know these people are made of money. But ***?!? The dude's got to understand that airplanes are complex machines that break from time to time.

This was my biggest fear before coming to work here. Maybe this will serve as a warning to anyone thinking of coming to fractional aircraft . . . I haven't been here long, and the guy I'm flying with said it seldom happens. But still. What frickin' jerk.

I know, I read the finincial papers, I'm thankful for the job, but I had to vent. I hope it never happens again.

IBPilot

next time throw the guy a wrench and tell him to fix it his d*&^ self.

NASHOBA

Beernuts,
Was the aircraft dispatched with the write-ups or did they break enroute?

Navajo31

I have not had any real issues with pax getting cranky about passenger convenience items that don't work. A busted DVD player is hardly worthy grounding the plane. And the owners seem to get that.

Just don't MEL the lav before a long trip....

The Duke

He probably had a lot of other issues on his mind, such as the economy and the sudden realization that if things continue, he might not be able to afford travel at your fractional. Rather than handling this like a man and being able to cope w/ the fact that, like you said, things break from time to time, he instead had a nervous breakdown and took his emotions out on you guys. It's called displaced aggression, it afflicts all kinds, but is exceptionally prevalent amongst the rich. In my experience, it tends to be the worst in Aspen, Colorado. Hopefully your passenger has had time to get over himself by now, probably not though. Most likely, he has been that way his whole life and it's too late to change. You'll have many more like him, I'm sure. Best of luck. You'll be fine, just realize they're inherently miserable people. Lord only knows what they would do if they had to fly in a regular airplane like the rest of us peasants.

NorthTxFlyBoy

It doesn't happen often, becuse most of the owners value safety above all else, but there have been a few a examples where NJA owners have been refunded the remaining balance of their contracts and asked to leave the program for abusing crewmembers. This company will not tolerate it, and they don't expect the crews to fly anyone being abusive. You don't confront them - you just politely remove yourself from the situation if possible and let the company handle it. I've never felt the owners could push me into a situation I wasn't comfortable with.

Pilotpip

You'll have a few of them.

I'll never forget the crew at my FBO one incredibly stormy day that wouldn't go. Owner of the aircraft was animant that he could "fire them and have new pilots in an hour". Captain looked him in the eye, threw the keys for the doors at him, and told him exactly where to stick them. Apparently he did this quite a bit.

A bit extreme, I know, however 99% of passenger realize that the pilots have the experience to make those choices, not them. They might get a bit angry over missing a meeting but it usually subsides when they see armageddon outside, or a nice blob of red on the radar right where they're going.

hoover

yeah those px suck just be glad you don't have 150 of them when something breaks. we just shut and lock the door. one time flying into a foriegn country after a divert from another country the px would not get off and demanded we take them to thier destination. they wouldn't leave when airport security showed up. it was only until the military came and threatened to throw them all in jail and take thier passports did they get off. after they completely trashed the palne and drank all the liquior.

shanKs

I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of extremely wealthy people. To be honest I've found some of the nicest people to be the ones that have insane amounts of money. It's the one's that think they're rich but really not that seem to be the most impolite.

hotelmode

Maybe he was on his way back from asking the government for money

Speaking of which, I heard some news report say that a typical round trip on a business jet costs $20,000. What's the truth in that?