Would You Report This Flight Attendant Safety Violation? I’m Torn…

Usually I’m in the “snitches get stitches” camp, but I’m curious to hear if/when others would report things like this…

The flight attendant behavior I observed on a recent flight

The airline industry at large has an unwavering commitment to safety. That’s important, because flying starts getting unsafe when you cut into safety margins, and allow employees responsible for safety to break rules or cut corners, especially when it’s a pattern of behavior.

Along those lines, while it might sound minor, I witnessed something interesting during a recent flight on a major US airline. I was seated in first class, with a direct view of the flight attendant jump seat. On both the climb out and descent, the flight attendant had AirPods in.

Of course I don’t know what this flight attendant was listening to (music, a book, etc.), but either way, that’s certainly not allowed, and it of course raises serious safety concerns. Takeoff and landing are among the most critical phases of flight, and it’s important that flight attendants know what’s going on, and can hear all chimes. The flight attendant also had a questionable pin and a uniform piece that definitely wasn’t compliant, but I’m less concerned about that, because it doesn’t impact safety.

Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen a significant reduction in terms of industry seniority, both for pilots and flight attendants (due to the number of people who ended up retiring and leaving the industry).

I don’t want to generalize too much, but the younger and more junior flight attendants that have made their way into the industry can be a mixed bag. Sometimes they’re friendly and a bit more energetic than their senior colleagues, but other times, they have less of a work ethic, and also seem to more consistently break rules.

Like, over my past 10 flights, I’ve had two other noteworthy situations, both involving flight attendants who I assume are fairly junior. One was simply on a phone call during boarding, while another had headphones in. While I found both of those situations to be unprofessional, they didn’t pose a safety issue in the same way.

I’m not sure if I should report this behavior or not

Part of the issue with inflight service on many airlines is that there’s no direct supervisor onboard, there are no cameras to investigate things, and flight attendants don’t generally snitch on one another.

On the one hand, I think it’s silly to lodge a complaint over this, as it seems minor. On the other hand, my goal with doing so isn’t to get anything out of the airline, or to get the flight attendant in trouble. Rather, it’s just for this to be documented, in case it’s a repeated pattern. I’m sure the flight attendant would deny this happened if confronted by a manager, but the goal with lodging a complaint is to provide a data point in case this is a consistent issue that’s also reported by others.

The issue is that if passengers don’t report things like this, we’ll just see the frequency of stuff like this spread. After all, there’s no other way the airline will even know this is happening.

So I’m curious how y’all feel about something like this? I would think that flight attendants who follow the rules would be supportive of customers reporting their colleagues acting like this, since it’s awkward for them to otherwise turn in their colleague, or confront them.

Bottom line

On a recent flight, the lead flight attendant had headphones in for both the climb out and descent, the most critical phases of flights. This is obviously a violation of regulations.

Usually I’d just mind my own business, but I also feel like this is something I should probably report. It feels minor and petty, but my concern is that this is a repeated pattern of behavior, and to at least give a data point that can be documented. After all, if no one speaks up, these kinds of things will never be addressed.

What would you do in this situation? Would you mind your own business, or report it?