The Southwest Airlines Nashville Incident

It's hard to know where to start with the incident from Christmas Eve at the Nashville airport, in which by this account at The Hill,

According to a statement released by [Nashville airport] officials, a Southwest Airlines employee requested for an officer to escort passengers from the C Concourse to the pre-security ticket counter.

According to the NBC Today show,

A TikTok video shared by passenger and Nashville resident Amani Robinson, 20, shows an officer telling her mother and a fellow group of passengers standing in line on Christmas that they need to leave "or you will be arrested for trespassing."

I think it's safe to say that phones with video cameras have transformed policing. The Nashville airport police officer did not come off well in this encounter, although it's worth pointing out that in many jurisdictions, airport police are a separate agency from the main police department, and potentially they have lower standards for hiring and training. But as a regular On Patrol: Live fan, I see even more trespass complaints than car chases, and one thing I note is that officers called to a trespass situation by procedure separate the parties and get both sides.

In a normal trespass case, it's someone acting crazy at a retail or fast food establishment, the officers try to get the violator's side and get craziness, while the store manager is reasonable with a clear problem. But in any situation that's not clear cut, the respondiing officer calls in a supervisor, who makes any needed policy call. In the Nashville case at hand, the person who recorded the video and her mother weren't acting crazy, they and the numerous passengers around them were peacefully trying to get information from Southwest on their flights, and they had no indication this was out of line until a patrol officer threatened them with arrest.

I think if the officer was of the caliber we normally see on On Patrol: Live, he would see two issues: one would be the size of the crowd, and he would call for backup (later videos suggest he did this), but once he got both sides, this would also raise an immediate question of policy: these are people who are trying to get home on Christmas, they aren't disruptive, and the airline can't handle them. I've seen commentators ask if the officer had discretion to handle the case, but this is the wrong question, he should have called the shift supervisor for guidance. In fact, the shift supervisor should have rousted the chief at home.

In an ideal world, the lieutenant and the chief would quickly work out a temporaary solution where the crowd could be courteously shephereded to a different area while they conferred with Southwest on a better way to handle the situation. The difficulty would arise when it become clear that the Southwest people on site were completely overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the video was close to the worst possible outcome for the airport police, the airport management, and Southwest. The only thing worse would be people being tased.

According to the NBC link,

Southwest Airlines did not comment to NBC News, saying in a statement that they did not have any information to authenticate the encounter with the officer.

Of course there's information to authenticate the encounter, there's a viral video. I have the impression that Southwest is hoping they can just keep quiet, get things together by this weekend, and it'll all fade away.

Hundreds of thousands of travelers continued to bear the brunt of the airline's challenges on Thursday, with Southwest again canceling over half of its flights.

Ahead of the New Year's weekend, Southwest now says a recovery is in sight.

"We are encouraged by the progress we've made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet," the company said in a statement. "With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy."

According to the link.

In an apology statement late Wednesday — and again on a media briefing call on Thursday — Southwest said passengers can apply online for baggage returns, flight refunds and travel expenses from this week's disruption.

. . . "If Southwest fails to cover these costs, let us know and we will investigate and enforce," [Transportation Secretary] Buttigieg said Thursday. "Anyone facing denied or delayed compensation can file a complaint with us and we'll follow up."

Right. They'll get it all fixed right away. I have a feeling this isn't over, and even Democrats may want Buttigieg's head. But that leaves aside Southwest's problem, this is turning into a textbook corporate crisis that threatens both the company's bottom line and potentially its ability to stay in business. Still, maybe their board can get Elon Musk to buy them out with a generous offer. Then he can fix everything.