So Alan James didn’t and this happened:
One of Macquarie Group’s top banking executives in the US was offloaded from a Qantas plane in Los Angeles for alleged disruptive behaviour after refusing to turn off his mobile phone. The incident on board QF108 resulted in Alan James, a New York-based senior managing director for Macquarie, being offloaded from the plane in LA on May 22 and later stopped from taking a connecting flight to Sydney. The first incident occurred when a flight attendant told Mr James, who was seated in business class, to turn off his mobile phone while the Qantas aircraft was taxiing at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport. The second involved a conversation with one of Qantas’s airport staff at LA International Airport, at which point he was refused travel on another Qantas plane to Sydney…was allowed to take another Qantas flight to Sydney the following day. The airline’s policy is to ban disruptive passengers from flying for 24 hours.
A spokeswoman for the FBI confirmed that it was notified about an incident on board the flight between New York and LA but no federal charges were filed.
Obviously what’s unclear at this time is how egregious James’ violation of the rule was (e.g. was he shouting into his phone moments before takeoff or simply scrolling through picture of Miranda Kerr, which he knew would be prohibited once he reached HQ? Reaming someone out about “this deal going up in flames” or quietly finishing an email to a reporter about how the NBA lockout was affecting his business?). These are the questions we need answering.
Macquarie exec ordered off Qantas plane [Sydney Morning Herald]
Investment banker kicked off flight from JFK to LAX after ‘refusing to turn off cell phone’ [NYP]
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Tags: "a conversation", Alan James, cell phones, Citi alums, Macquarie, this is not 'Nam, time-outs
