B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Attendant Current
Time Pressure
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Security; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Police / Security Involved
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
During boarding; Ops informed Flight Attendant A that there is a group of young men who seemed to be intoxicated that will be boarding the flight. She explains to FA A that he will 'know who they are' when they come on. FA A asked Ops why they were allowing them to board and when Ops didn't provide an answer; FA A went to the Captain and asked the Captain why they were allowing them to board. The Captain then interrupted boarding and went down to talk with the Ops agent about the situation. Apparently; because of the events that followed; the Ops agent was able to satisfy the Captain's question. Two bachelor parties come on board; each smelling of alcohol. One party had 5-7 men (estimated) and the other 7-10 men and women (estimated). Both parties had been drinking several hours due to their flights being late or delayed. Ops positioned a policeman on the tarmac to 'keep an eye' on the groups to make sure they didn't do anything wrong. Why even have that if Ops didn't know they were already intoxicated? Most men came on very loud; boisterous; obnoxious; profane and smelling of alcohol. There was no mistaking the smell. Additionally; the smaller of the two groups began to harass the FA B on boarding in the back; catcalling her and making comments out loud as she walked by them. Once on board; they began being loud and rude throughout the entire back part of the plane. We could hear them in the front after the FA A made the opening PA. At this time; FA B made her way to the front to say that she would not and could not work back there. She said we needed to take passengers off because of their loud behavior; rudeness and level of intoxication. At this point the Ops Supervisor came on board and went to smooth over the situation and explain to the groups that there would be no alcohol served on the flight. As she starts talking to the groups; one man decided to mouth off to her and she quickly realized the situation and began steps to pull him off the plane. The man would not comply; so she called for a policeman. Two policemen then came on board and informed the man that he would not be flying to ZZZ and the man began to get even more upset while several of the friends in his group began to make even more noise about it being unjust that they are pulling the man from the flight. After a few minutes of the man arguing the man decided to come up to the front of the plane. Once in the front of the plane; Captain began talking to him and explaining to him why he was not going to ZZZ. The policeman then grabbed him by the arm and pulled him off the plane. Once the man was off the plane; the Captain then asked for the three Flight Attendants; the Ops Supervisor and himself to meet out on the ramp. The FA B stayed on the plane while the Captain asked what we wanted to do. All three of us said we wanted to take the groups off and; at least; did not want to serve during the 46 minute flight. The Captain informed us that we were going to do a water service with no alcohol. The Ops agent then said they needed to push the plane due to a terminator coming in. At this point; Captain made a PA to the plane that we were only going to do a limited service of water and that no alcohol would be served. As the Captain finished his PA; he said 'My name is John Doe. John Doe.' As he finished; the B was at mid cabin counting and one of the passenger yelled 'John Doe is a jerk!' at the top of his voice. B immediately turned around and tried to determine who said this. Noticing that the man we thought said it was getting elbowed by his girlfriend and being told to be quiet. This caused another stir and at this point we wanted both groups pulled off for good. Another Ops Sup came on board (who told us she had seen them drinking for several hours in the airport) and went to confront both groups again. Without being able to positively identify who the person was; we decided to then switch positions so that the B would not be forced to work in the back with all of these men. 4 policemen then came to determine who we were wanting to remove from the plane. The lead police officer then informed each group that if anything happened on the way to ZZZ that they would be back at our departure airport and having to deal with him upon return that night. Ultimately; the Captain and Ops made the decision to let them all fly. This was against our wishes and judgment. The plane then took off and landed in ZZZ without another incident. We need to stop being scared of lawsuits from intoxicated passengers and have the Ops Agents do their jobs! We can't pass this on to us as we are in a metal tube at 38;000 feet. This situation should have been handled by Ops the way they are instructed to do. Failure to handle the situation in the terminal led to a bunch of people thinking they can say and do whatever they want and not have any repercussions. This entire event will never happen again as long as I work for this Company. I will never let it go again like we did last night.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
B737 Flight Attendants reported questioning Company Operations and the Captain's decision to depart with a group of intoxicated passengers.