#PigOnBoard: Man Calls American Flight Attendant A Pig, Posts Her Picture Online (Shame On Him!)

A “media personality and political commentator” is facing backlash online for the disgusting comments he made about an American Airlines flight attendant. However, I don’t think this is getting quite enough attention yet, and I hope that (at a minimum) the airline bans him from traveling with the carrier going forward.

Man complains about “worst flight attendant” ever

A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge reports on how a New York-based Guyanese “media personality and political commentator” named Ossie Winston Rodgers took to social media a couple of days ago, to complain about an alleged recent flight between Georgetown (GEO) and New York (JFK). On Facebook, he posted a picture of the flight attendant performing her service, writing:

How come this pig got employed by American Airlines? Most of the passengers on this flight agreed she is the worst flight attendant they have ever experienced. #PigOnBoard Apology to JetBlue!

As you can see, he labeled her as the worst flight attendant he ever had, and “apologized” to JetBlue, presumably because he complained about the airline in the past, but decided that JetBlue is actually better than American.

As you’d expect, he received a lot of criticism from airline employees for this — both for posting a flight attendant’s picture without her permission, and for how he labeled her. Initially he defended himself by claiming that he had obtained the flight attendant’s permission to take her photograph. Riiiiight… “hey, I hate you, and I’d like to post your picture online and call you a pig… do I have your consent?”

Clearly that was a lie, and ultimately he decided to delete his post. It’s quite interesting to look at this guy’s own public Facebook page, both in terms of what he supports, and the values he claims to have. He writes things like this:

This right here tells the story of the decay of compassion, empathy, consideration and the respect for human life. All on the decline in a country where indecency, lawlessness, arrogance, immorality and lack of basic reasoning and common sense is on the increase.

Gee, buddy, have you looked in the mirror? A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge further notes some of this guy’s past behavior:

• In 2022, he was allegedly captured on video in an altercation with a supermarket employee, and assaulted her after an argument inside the store; he denied wrongdoing, claimed he had been provoked, and acted in self defense, and he later settled with the woman
• In 2014, he was charged with assault causing bodily harm and threatening behavior, following allegations that he slapped a 13-year-old girl during a dispute

Interestingly, the flight attendant herself commented on the post online, explaining that he “absolutely did not have consent to photograph or post me,” and that “other than the typical course of service there was no interaction between us.”

She went on to say that “he is a self-proclaimed bully and has made an entire career off of harassment,” and “I assure you all I was not unprofessional with him nor did I do anything to warrant his attention.” She also said she intends “to pursue this to the extent of the law—not only for me, but to shed light on the increased stress and harassment flight crew endure onboard and even online.”

This man should be banned from flying on American

We all owe fellow humans a base level of respect. Is it possible this flight attendant was bad? I wasn’t there, so it absolutely could be. However:

• There’s zero reason to post her picture online, especially without even concealing her identity; if you have a complaint, send an email to customer relations with her name, or a brief description
• Calling someone a pig, and then even adding the hashtag #PigOnBoard, is vile

At least in the United States, photographing a flight attendant isn’t illegal, though it does violate airline rules, which you agree to when buying a ticket. Therefore I think it’s only fair that American ban this man from future travel on the airline. This is a level of vileness that employees shouldn’t have to tolerate. It’s one thing to post her picture, but to literally hashtag it with #PigOnBoard is even more inexcusable.

Now, as far as legal action beyond that goes… this is beyond my area of expertise, but I feel like at least in the United States, this falls in the category of “free speech?” It wasn’t illegal to take her picture, and calling someone a pig on social media also isn’t illegal (as far as I know), so I’m not sure this quite meets that threshold? But maybe I’m missing something…

But yeah, this dude deserves a good public shaming. If you consider yourself to be a political activist and commentator, you should be deliberate with what you put out there, especially with hateful stuff like this.

Bottom line

A New York-based Guyanese “media personality” flew on American, and labeled a flight attendant as the worst he has ever had, calling her a pig, and even using the hashtag #PigOnBoard. While it can be frustrating to have bad service on a flight, posting a flight attendant’s picture without their consent, and then using such a vile hashtag, crosses a line.

The guy ended up deleting this after backlash, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some accountability. While I’m not sure there’s much legal basis here for a lawsuit, being placed on American’s “no fly list” should be a given.

What do you make of this man’s social media post?