Star of television series 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin was shown off of an American Airlines flight on Monday, due partly to his refusal to stop playing Words with Friends. He definitely put his Words with Friends Cheat to use when he wrote an article for The Huffington Post entitled “My Flying Lesson” regarding the incident.
The star, a few hours after sending out a number of angry tweets at the airline, quit the social networking site and definitely had more than 140 characters in what can only be called an apology that was not an apology. Even though Baldwin begins his letter by apologizing to his fellow passengers, stating that “It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone,” the actor, for the most part, ranted about his frustrations with the airline industry in general.
In his article in the Huffington Post, Baldwin says that due to struggles in the rising fuel costs, labor costs and other such problems, the service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that is apparently beyond redemption. He then states that one of the biggest changes was the increase in security measures following the events of the 9/11 attacks. While he says that this date was a horrific tragedy in the airline industry, he believes that airline companies have used it “as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.”
Concerning the circumstances of his getting kicked off, Baldwin said that a certain flight attendant singled him out and “got the best of me.” He goes on to say that while others were tinkering with their own phones, this certain flight attendant “singled me out to put my phone away. He further notes that at a later time, before takeoff, he took his phone out again as other did so too, but yet again was “singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones”
In a rebuttal statement, posted Wednesday on their Facebook page, American Airlines stated that not only did the 30 Rock star ignore FAA regulations, but also took his phone into the lavatory and began yelling profanities at the crew. According to Reuters, Baldwin was taken off of the flight after becoming “violent, abusive and aggressive.” The actor, who was put into another American Airlines flight after that, was back on the 30 Rock set by Wednesday.
Baldwin finished – before mentioning one last “apology to my fellow travelers” for good measure – his post by going so far as to compare some flight attendants, save for those he claims “still have some remnant of the old ideas of service” to gym teachers that turn the flight experience into a Greyhound bus experience. He does not fail to express his disappointment that one must fly overseas in order to bring back what has been “thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of Common sense, style and service.”
Baldwin might have forgotten Jack Donaghy’s saying, “What keeps people polite on airplanes? A shared hatred for the CBS sitcoms they’re forced to watch.”