Oops: United Flight Attendants Abandoning Passengers On Planes

Several months ago, I wrote about how American Airlines was reportedly having an issue, whereby flight attendants were leaving passengers on aircraft at the end of flights. As it turns out, United Airlines is having a similar problem.

Passengers being left on United flights after landing

PYOK flags a memo that was sent to United flight attendants by their union, AFA-CWA. According to the memo, the airline is reportedly seeing too many instances of passengers being left onboard aircraft at the end of flights, despite the post-flight cabin sweep that flight attendants are supposed to perform before they deplane.

To address this, the union joined the company’s inflight management department to conduct some observations, in order to identify where human factors and other operational factors may impact the crew’s ability to complete the sweep, as outlined in the SOP.

An incomplete sweep can lead to a violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, which require a certain number of crew members to be onboard an aircraft while passengers are onboard. If a flight is staffed at minimums, no flight attendants can deplane until all passengers are off. As the union explains:

Even the simplest distraction or loss of focus due to external factors can result in us missing a passenger asleep in their seat or one in the lavatory. It’s that easy. While the focus is on ensuring all passengers are off the aircraft before we deplane, all components of the sweep, especially ensuring all doors are disarmed, are critical.

One concern we have continued to bring forward is the presence of cabin cleaners onboard and throughout the aircraft at a time where Flight Attendants are trying to conduct the sweep. It has become more routine for cleaners to board the aircraft during passenger deplaning, potentially obstructing our view or creating an inadvertent distraction. While we continue to express concern over this risk to the company, it’s critical to pay even more attention to the seat groups and corresponding floor areas of, and around, seats where cabin cleaners are positioned to ensure there are no passengers still onboard the aircraft while conducting the sweep. Cleaners should have a reflective vest and badge visible while onboard the aircraft. To ensure a passenger is not mistaken for a cleaner or other ground employee, challenge anyone without a visible badge while conducting the sweep.

I’m shocked this happens with any frequency

Admittedly I’m a light sleeper, so I can’t even imagine the concept of sleeping through a landing and deplaning, given the amount of noise and light. But in order for someone to be left on the aircraft, it can’t just be that the passenger sleeps through the landing and deplaning, but also that the crew somehow doesn’t notice.

It hasn’t been revealed, but I’d be fascinated to know the frequency with which this happens. Like, I’m not surprised this happens a handful of times per year across airlines, and then it usually makes headlines. But I’m surprised it’s an issue that happens with any regularity at one airline.

As an example of when this did happen, in 2019 there was a viral story, whereby a woman was trapped on an Air Canada jet. She had fallen asleep, and woke up in the middle of the night, to find herself on a cold, dark aircraft, with no one else around.

I can totally appreciate how there may be human factors involved here, and how cleaners boarding the aircraft can create somewhat of a visual distraction. But folks, this isn’t rocket science. It’s not like anyone isn’t capable of sweeping the aircraft and telling the difference between a cleaner and a passenger. Instead, it’s clearly just that proper sweeps aren’t consistently being performed.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, since flight attendants sometimes even abandon their colleagues onboard aircraft, as one crew member recently bragged about on TikTok.

Bottom line

United is reportedly having an issue whereby flight attendants are sometimes leaving passengers behind on aircraft, and are failing to do their post-flight sweeps correctly. It seems that in these situations, passengers are either sleeping or in the lavatory.

Flight attendants do an amazing job taking care of passenger safety, both the ordinary (arming and disarming doors) and the extraordinary (evacuating passengers during en emergency). So this really doesn’t seem like it should be that complicated either.

What do you make of this issue with United passengers being abandoned onboard?