JetBlue Flight Attendant Fired For Fatigue

Long Beach, CA, March 23--JetBlue flight attendant Carolyn Livingston was fired last week after being bullied into working a flight that put her over the FAA maximum flight attendant duty period. The company accused her of sleeping on the job. She maintains that she was not, although she said she had tried to get herself and her crew released from the flight due to fatigue.

On February 17, Livingston, 35, was lead flight attendant of a four-member cabin crew that was to work a red-eye flight from Long Beach, CA, to Fort Lauderdale, FL, and back the next morning without a break. They were scheduled to report to the airport at 8:20pm and take off at 9:20pm. The flight was delayed two and a half hours, and didn't leave until 11:30pm.

During the flight, Livingston told the pilots to call the cabin crew in fatigued, as they were too tired to work the return flight back to Long Beach Airport, which would now put them over the FAA maximum 14-hour duty day.

When they landed in Fort Lauderdale, an In-flight supervisor met the plane and informed Livingston and her crew that there were no hotel rooms available in Fort Lauderdale, and that they would have to fly them all the way to New York’s JFK airport to get a hotel room if they refused to continue the trip. The supervisor also told Livingston that the return flight to Long Beach would have to cancel unless she and her crew agreed to work it.

Livingston’s crewmembers then decided to change their minds and work the return flight back to Long Beach.

“At this point I felt pressured to work the flight back, too,” Livingston said. “The supervisor intimidated me by telling me that they would have to cancel the flight if we didn’t work it. Plus, she didn’t seem to want to accept no for an answer. She informed us that they wouldn’t be able to get us a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale if we decided to stay.”

Livingston said she finally decided to go ahead and work the flight home, as it seemed to be the easiest solution for everyone involved.

Three weeks later, Livingston’s supervisor notified her of a report from a fellow crewmember that stated Livingston had been sleeping on one of the jumpseats in the back galley during the flight back to Long Beach on February 18. Sleeping on the jumpseat is a fireable offense at JetBlue. Subsequently, Livingston was placed on suspension pending an investigation.

On March 16, Livingston was terminated from JetBlue. The reason given: sleeping on the jumpseat.

“I was shocked. I absolutely was NOT sleeping on the jumpseat,” Livingston said. “Management concocted that as an excuse to fire me for attempting to call in fatigued for the flight.”

Fatigue is not a new issue for the airline crews. Indeed, it has been a major concern since the dawn of aviation. It is especially important since it impacts airline safety. Pilot fatigue has been blamed for many crashes through the years.

“Apparently safety is not JetBlue’s number one concern,” Livingston said. “Otherwise they would have allowed us to call in fatigued and relieved us from the flight. I told the oncoming pilots that we had called in fatigued, and they were shocked that In-flight didn't release us. In their opinion that was a complete no-no.”

Not only does crew fatigue impact airline safety, but also crewmembers’ health. In recent years flight attendant and pilot unions have been trying to push for stricter federal regulations regarding required crew rest and maximum duty days. Many airlines like JetBlue, however, find ways to intimidate their employees into flying past the federally mandated daily limits.

Livingston, a single mother, stated she felt she had no chance of appealing to get her job back.

JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said the company does not comment on crewmembers to the public.

JetBlue flight attendants are not unionized.