8/7/2008 6:00:00 AM
Woman detained by airline over video
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Marilyn Parver is shown here after her release by Las Vegas police following her arrest over video she shot on a flight from New York to Las Vegas.
Courtesy
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KINGMAN - Marilyn Parver got on her flight to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas like every other passenger.
The 56-year-old Kingman resident stored her carry-on luggage before making sure her seat belt was fastened and her chair was in its upright position. She even enjoyed two glasses of wine with the meal she had brought onboard with her on the nearly six-hour flight that left from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Unlike the other passengers on the flight, Parver was led off the plane in handcuffs by law enforcement officials when the plane landed at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas around 10:20 p.m.
"You cannot imagine what it felt like," Parver said. "I knew I had done nothing wrong."
Parver said she believes she was wrongfully detained for refusing to delete from her camera an in-flight argument between passengers on July 26.
"I was taking photos from my window seat of clouds, and I was wearing a noise-reduction headset with a TV show playing loudly in my ears," Parver said. "Even with the headset on, I had been able to hear a very loud child seated a few rows in front of me annoying everyone for approximately two hours.
"Suddenly, I heard loud shouts and removed my headset," she added. "I realized that the man seated next to the loud child had finally lost it."
At that point, the child's mother and the passenger were yelling at each other, Parver added.
"On instinct, I turned my video camera towards the altercation," Parver said.
Having just left from a visit with her grandchild in Boston, Parver said she thought the video would be a good example to show her daughter how children's behavior affects other people.
Parver said she did not leave her seat or even stand up in it.
"I was not interested in who was involved, I just wanted the words being said," Parver added, "so I did not adjust the exposure and kept everyone in full shadow."
In the less than two-minute video, an off-screen man can be heard yelling at a woman to control her child and the mother responding also in anger.
"A JetBlue employee settles the dispute very appropriately," Parver said. "There was no violence or extreme behavior."
Approximately 30 minutes after the dispute, Parver said she was approached by the flight crew who were asking passengers questions about the altercation. When Parver told them she had recorded the incident, they requested she accompany them to the back of the plane, Parver said.
There she showed the video to three or four crew members, Parver said.
"After viewing the video, they demanded that I delete it," Parver said. "I asked, 'Why?' The head-stewardess went as far as to tell me that I had broken a law by using an electronic item during the flight."
At that time, another flight attendant accused Parver of wanting to put it up on YouTube, a video-sharing Web site.
"I do not even know how to download a video on the Internet," Parver said.
After refusing and returning to her seat, the crew asked Parver to return to the back of the plane again, she said.
"This time they told me that the captain demanded that I delete the video," Parver added.
Parver requested to speak to the captain by telephone to confirm the demand. She was not granted this request.
"If the captain had nicely asked me to delete the video, I don't think I would have disobeyed a pilot," Parver said.
Parver again refused the flight crew's request. At that point, one attendant told Parver that if she disobeyed the captain, federal agents would be involved and she could face criminal penalties.
"This was all a case of bullying," Parver said.
She added she felt the whole situation did not seem right.
"I'm a rational, non-threatening 56-year-old grandmother who was complying with every request the flight crew made, other than delete two minutes of video," Parver said. "I knew I had done nothing wrong and that the flight crew was out of line to demand I delete a video."
Parver said she politely told the flight crew that she would accept being arrested since she did not believe she had broken any laws and returned to her seat.
A few minutes later she was given a yellow slip of paper notifying Parver to cease her illegal behavior or risk very serious repercussions with the phrase "Interference with an airline crew member" circled. The offense has a maximum punishment of $10,000 in fines and 25 years in jail.
"How could the flight crew falsely accuse me of a federal crime?" Parver said. "I only left my seat when I was asked to follow them. I only spoke when they spoke to me. I blocked no one. I never turned on a light. And I never brought my camera out again after receiving this notice."
Bryan Baldwin, the manager of corporate communications for JetBlue Airways, said their legal department is currently looking into the incident, and he cannot comment.
When the plane landed, the captain made an announcement that everyone would need to remain in their seats while federal agents come on board to take a passenger into custody.
When they landed, Parver said she unsuccessfully tried to reach her 72-year-old husband on her cell phone and eventually contacted her daughter in Boston to explain she was being arrested.
Parver said she was escorted off the flight by two police officers, a TSA agent and a JetBlue Airways representative in handcuffs.
"I was treated as if I was a gun-toting terrorist," Parver added.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gregory S. Alter with Federal Air Marshal Service said the Transportation Security Administration Office of Law Enforcement has no record of an incident since they were not involved.
Parver said she did not resist arrest and was taken to the counter across from the arrival gate, where her handcuffs were removed. She gave her camera to the individuals who had removed her from the plane.
"The police, a JetBlue rep and a TSA official all looked at the video and agreed that it was too dark to really see who was on it and that it clearly had been shot from my seat, so I had not interfered with anything that was going on," Parver said. "I assumed that was the end of it." At that point, the representative with JetBlue requested that she delete the video, Parver added.
"He informed me that if I didn't immediately delete it, I could never fly on JetBlue again," she said. "He said that he would be filing a report that would be shared with other airlines, and I might have a hard time getting any airline to let me fly."
Parver requested a written notice that she was going to be denied service from the airline, as well as possibly others. The representative and LVMPD officers then asked her to leave, Parver said.
Parver then asked for everyone's name, when the officer told her to leave or be arrested, she said.
"I said, 'Then arrest me.'"
At that point the officer arrested her, pushed her against the wall and forced her down a flight of stairs, Parver said.
On the trip to the station, Parver said the officer accused her of being drunk.
"When I tried to explain anything, I was told I could not talk, only he could talk," Parver added.
The officer explained to Parver she was under arrest for disobeying an officer, she said. After sitting in a dark room on a wooden bench, the officer told her the flight crew told the law enforcement officials that she had taken pictures of the cockpit, the galley and other suspicious things on board, Parver said.
Her husband arrived, and she was released with bruises on her legs and marks on her wrists from the handcuffs.
Without a citation or arrest made, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department doesn't have documentation of the incident, officer Jay Rivera said.
"All they were doing then was teaching me a lesson for saying, 'Go ahead, arrest me,'" Parver said. "I think JetBlue got me into this mess."
Since that night, Parver has written formal complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Aviation Consumer Protection Agency, the TSA and JetBlue. Parver said FedEx has confirmed delivering her complaints to the Aviation Consumer Protection Agency and so on. Parver has left a complaint with TSA on their Web site, which they keep sending back to her telling her to contact other agencies.
"They weren't doing anything on it but passing the buck to other people," Parver said.
She doesn't plan to let this incident rest, Parver said. "This could have happened to anyone, but few would have stood up to the threats," Parver said. "This should never happen in America."
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Posted: Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Article comment by:
Mekhong Kurt
If this story is both accurate and *complete,* then what happened to this woman is, quite simply, utterly unacceptable. I wish I knew how it came out, assuming it has been resolved one way or the other by now (i.e., Tuesday, May 4, 2010).
As for those here accusing her of filming the cockpit and so on, in the first place, that information is NOT in the story -- only that the flight attendants accused her of it. Whether or not she did is an entirely different matter from an accusation. Either you have information the reporter here (1.) didn't have, (2.) decided not to use, or (3.) felt irrelevant to the story.
How could it be irrelevant? I've taken LOTS of pictures on airplanes that included the cockpit in the background, these days (post 9/11) with the cockpit door closed, so no secrets revealed in those, and in the old days before 9/11, sometimes a slice of the cockpit itself when the door was open. Not once was I ever confronted about this. In fact, one time we were delayed on the tarmac and the cabin door was open the co-pilot came out. I asked him if I could see the cockpit, and he led me in. Camera in hand, I asked if I could take a photo of him and the captain -- and both willingly obliged, leaning inwards so I could step back and get a photo of them with a bit of the control panel visible between them. And I had no special status they didn't know me from Adam.
The police were probably justified in initially detaining her, as they were acting on information received from the crew. The handcuffing is a bit over the top, if they searched her (and any bag or purse she might have had) and found nothing of interest, such as a knife. And I'm an ex-cop and ex-security patrolman, so I do have considerable experience with this, albeit that was all pre-9/11. But I'm quite certain 56-year-old grandmothers did not suddenly become suspicious, as a class, on 9/11.
What a screw-up.
Posted: Thursday, February 11, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
I'll bet the upshot of all this, if she pursues legal action, will be FREE TRAVEL ON JETBLUE for LIFE!!!!
Posted: Saturday, January 30, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
They really went too far but because she filmed the cockpit, she could at least stop with her tantrum and delete the video. And does it matters if it's America? "This should never happen in America". Oh heck, don't be ignorant.
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
Article comment by:
weary-traveler
This is just a few people abusing their authority and if she gets a smart attorney she can fight it. How unfortunate that she landed in "Vegas" which has a bad reputation for being over the top in their security responses. Everyone who works for the government is represented as a cross-section of society and you should expect base responses from these individuals until they are rooted out and left to other employment.
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Article comment by:
J. D. Houston
What a shame..I have gone through a simalar situtation crossing the border, getting a motel room in houston, tx, and getting stop and followed off main roads by NY state police, because I'm a black man.She's lucky she's white!.
Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
You shouldn't be allowed in the U.S. with 3g of pot, since it's illegal here. That would be like me saying "I wasn't allowed into Poland while carrying my Nazi flag and driving my Panzer Tank, their security is crazy over there!!"
Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Joe
What a shame. This poor lady simply stated she filmed the incident when asked for comments by the flight crew. She was trying to help the flight crew and they turned on her. It sounds like they were paranoid about how they handled the incident between the man and the mother.
I guess the lesson is she shouldn't have mentioned that she had the video. Poor judgement on part of the flight crew and pilot.
Posted: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
give em'hell i cant go to u.s . now cause i had 3 grams of pot your homeland security thing is way out whack
Posted: Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
its good to know that some people out there still have enough backbone to stand up for themselves when they know their rights. and if i were to guess, anyone supporting the airline in this thread is probably affiliated with the airline or federal agencies in some way. That being said, she certainly made her own life more difficult by not complying with the attendants' demands, but she had every right to do what she did.
Posted: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I have contacted so far 998 people who all agree to boycott flights on Jet Blue due to this until a public apology and acceptable explanation occurs.
Posted: Thursday, December 03, 2009
Article comment by:
Real American
To "Just do what you are told" posting below this. You fully deserve to live in a totalitarian state. Flying in a plane does not remove your Bill of Rights Protections. Freedom of the Press,and the right to face your accuser in a court of law, and protection from unlawful detainment were all violated. Apparently she was never given access to a lawyer during this process either. The police very causally injured her (yes they know exactly how to make the cuffs just a bit too tight to cause pain) This a was th abuse of authority and lack of accountablity from start to finish. The small cowardly sheep that posted below me is so in awe of authority that they actually publicly proclaim that it was Marylin Parver that did something wrong. Shameful.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
This is so typically American. Just do what you're being told by those airline employees. Although she paid a fare, she is not in charge of what goes on in the cabin. It is none of her business. She should be arrested and punished, as she DID interfere with the flight crew. Knowing how she acted in the cabin, I can only imagine how she was with the cop. Lock her up!!!
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
b-ran
hahahahahahahaha! thats the united states for ya! your country sucks!!
Posted: Friday, September 18, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I believe that we the Citizens of America should not be subject to anything like this Crime by so called Airline employyes who don't have much to say for themselves anyway. Poor judgement is their number 1 call and the service is BAD,BAD,BAD. THEY SHOULD GET RID OF THE attendants. WE DON'T NEED THEM AT ALL. WHAT DO THEY DO ANYWAY????
COME ON PEOPLE WHAT DO THEY DO??? WE PAY TO MUCH FOR NOTHNG AND GET ARRESTED FOR BEING CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
WHY NOT GO AFTER THE GOVERNMENT AIRLINES BELONG TO THE GOVERNMENT. NOT WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. CHECK IT OUT.
GET RID OF THE ATTENDANTS THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
Posted: Sunday, September 13, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Thank you for printing this article. We need to know about the abuse perpetrated by cops and airline staff--it happens all the time, unfortunately. We also need to know how to protect ourselves. I hope another article is printed informing people how to protect themselves. I believe Ms.Parver's reasonable request for everyone's name should have resulted in her receiving the names. Alas, based on my experience, cops are loathe to give their names. Perhaps because they so often engage in abusive activities like the ones described above? The LVMPD officer should have taken the JetBlue staff to task for lying and released Ms. Parver immediately with an apology for bothering her.
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