Air France - flight Portugal to Paris - punched by another passenger - stewardess did not call police

Complaints.com received the following on April 7, 2003:

From: Email User

RE: Air France - flight Portugal to Paris - punched by another passenger - stewardess did not call police

Dear Sir /Madam,

I am writing to you regarding my flight with Air France last Year.(August).

Last year I flew with AIR FRANCE from Portugal to Paris. Before the aircraft had even left the jetway a man in front of me started to get very uneasy in his seat. He tried to get the seat to drop into the recline position however he could not, so he started to punch the seat.

Myself and the passenger next to me asked him to stop punching the seat, at which point he said something to me in French and then Punched me in the face. I called the stewardess as I wanted to call the police to have a Violent passenger removed from the plane. When the stewardess arrived I informed her what had happened. To my absolute amazement rather then acting on my request to call the police she told me in her exact words to "Sit Down and Shut Up" and refused to call the police.

The man became even more violent and continued to make verbal abuse to me. I refused to sit down and Insisted to see some one. Another stewardess came over this time with the Captain of the flight. I was informed that they would not call the police as it would delay the departure of the flight, they moved the man to another seat and did nothing to reassure me of my safety on there flight.

As far as I understand If a passenger requests the Police to be called the airline must act on this. However AIR FRANCE SEAM TO PUT GETTING THERE AIRCRAFT AWAY ON TIME ABOVE PASSENGER SAFETY. I have never flown air France again and never will. I have written over 70 letters of complaint to them yet never received any satisfactory response.

Yours Sincerely

Chris Webber