=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2002/07= /10/MN188485.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, July 10, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Drunk pilot wisecrack gets woman tossed/America West sees no humor in jokes= about its fired workers Alan Gathright, Chronicle Staff Writer Check the one-liners along with your bags -- even if there's a sober poi= nt behind the joke. That's the apparent moral in the story of a female passenger boarding an America West Airlines flight at San Francisco who asked, "Have you checked your crew for sobriety?" The wisecrack didn't fly. There was no laughter from the flight crew, whose airline last week fired two pilots who attempted to take off from Miami while allegedly drunk. The unidentified woman, who insisted that she was joking, was ordered off the 9 a. m. Monday Tucson-bound flight at San Francisco International Airport. While airline and airport officials say safety and security issues are no joking matter after Sept. 11, a passenger advocate said bouncing the woman was a heavy-handed reaction to a legitimate -- if undiplomatic -- comment. "I think that's an abuse of authority," said David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. "That's not a security matter. This (pilot sobriety) is obviously an issue of concern for passengers." America West also broke "one of the key rules of public relations: You don't want to do anything to repeat bad news," he added. Tonight Show host Jay Leno is one of many comics who has been flying high with the Miami incident, in which the pilots were ordered to taxi the jetliner back to the gate after security screeners reported the smell of booze on their breath. "This is why we have to have locks upon the cockpit doors, to keep the pilots from gettin' at the beverage carts," Leno joked. The Monday incident, Stempler noted, "is just going to be more great fodder for Jay Leno." But Patty Nowack, a spokeswoman for Phoenix-based America West, said that when a flight attendant asked the passenger if her pilot sobriety crack was serious, the woman initially said yes. In that event, airline officials said, they were duty-bound to explore what caused her alarm -- or whether her off- the-cuff comment was a sign the woman might be unstable. "If it turns she was joking, we may have reacted harshly," Nowack said. "But we always say safety and security is never a joking matter. With those kinds of concerns, you have to take them seriously and further investigate." The flight was delayed 12 minutes while airline officials questioned the woman, said San Francisco airport spokesman Ron Wilson. She was placed on another carrier's flight at no additional cost. "The lesson to be learned here is the airline and airport security personnel are extremely sensitive to every aspect of aviation safety" in light of the September terrorist attacks and air-rage incidents, Wilson said. A passenger who makes a "suspicious" comment is going to draw greater scrutiny from airline officials who don't want to ignore warning signs or allow statements that could alarm nervous flyers. "The woman kept saying: 'I was just kidding, can't you guys take a joke,' " Wilson said. "But it's not the old days." Federal aviation regulations give pilots wide latitude to banish a someo= ne who's deemed to pose a risk to the safety and security of passengers and crew, Stempler said. That can range from a belligerent passenger who refuses to buckle their seat belt to someone who appears drunk or mentally deranged. "It's not all that uncommon for a pilot to say: 'My crew doesn't like wh= at this guy's doing. I'm just refusing to fly him,' " said airport police Sgt. Larry Ratti, whose officers weren't called during the America West incident. "This person probably thought they were being funny, because of the two America West pilots who were fired for being drunk," he added. "But you know that you've got to figure that's going to upset the pilot and that's not somebody you want to get upset." Nowack, however, insisted that the woman wasn't removed simply because h= er humor offended the crew. Indeed, since Sept. 11, levity is looked at in a whole different light in airport terminals. Signs are often posted at airport security checkpoints warning passengers that making false statements about weapons is a federal crime, carrying a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. "NO JOKES" say signs at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration's test model for the nationwide federal takeover of airport security. "Comments about guns and bombs will be taken very seriously," passengers are warned. Wisecrack about weapons, Ratti said, and "the FBI will be talking about that to you." Given Monday's incident, Stempler thinks more blunt signs are needed. "Outside airports, they ought to put up a big sign with an 'H' and a sla= sh through it for 'No Humor Zone,' " he said. "Because there's no joking allowed on any subject -- period." E-mail Alan Gathright at agathright@sfchronicle.com.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle