https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1054034491549855751?s=19
Ok, so most people have probably seen the video today. One thing that has annoyed me is that the Ryanair staff members and Ryanair themselves have been getting a lot of stick for it.
Firstly on the cabin crew, there were calls saying they should have removed the passenger. I agree with this BUT I sympathise with the cabin crew in that they probably felt that if they did remove the passenger they very likely would have felt that management wouldn't have supported them, possibly sacked or disciplined them. There is also the united airlines incident in the back of their heads in that if they did demand he were removed and he put up a struggle, the airline would be criticized.
In terms of cabin crew and support from management, I once had to deal with a customer in retail who was being aggressive and started to hurl homophobic abuse at me (I'm straight but I wasn't having it). I told the customer that he should leave the store and got a manager when he wouldn't. The manager dealt with it, gave support to me, tried to help the customer to no avail and he eventually went his way. Later in the week, more senior management said I was in no position to tell a customer to leave the store and I wasn't supported over it. The incident still gets brought up at times.
Secondly in terms of Ryanair. The Ryanair senior management were probably unaware of the incident until it went viral but reported it to police. Apart from fostering an environment where cabin crew do not feel empowered enough to make a stand, I don't understand what the company could have done.
Overall, I think the biggest issue is in regard to service type industries where customers kick up a fuss with general workers and management bend over to accommodate the abusive customer. If companies actually started to support their employees over customers, I think we'll get a massive decrease in bad behavior. I can generally relate to the Ryanair cabin crew on this.