JetBlue crew has woman arrested over video of fighting passengers

A Las Vegas woman was hauled off a JetBlue flight in handcuffs last week for shooting video of two other passengers having a loud argument.

Marilyn Parver of Las Vegas says that after settling the altercation, started by a male passenger arguing with the mother of an unruly kid, JetBlue crew members combed the cabin asking for witnesses. When Parver told crew members that she had filmed the fracas, they brought her back to the galley to view the video. They then asked Parver to delete the footage.

She refused.

As she recounts what followed to a Las Vegas area newspaper, the crew accused her of intending to put the film on YouTube. They said she had illegally operated an electronic device during the flight (though the plane was at cruising altitude).

Crew members then said a directive had come from the captain ordering her to delete the film.

Parver, 56, asked to speak to the captain. The crew refused. They said if she didn’t delete the video, federal agents would be waiting for her when the plane landed in Vegas.

They were. Declining to give in, Parver was taken into custody and led off the plane. Somewhere between the plane and the arrivals counter, Parver says, the charges against her had ballooned into taking video footage of the cockpit (because those doors are always open), the galley and other parts of the plane.

The Feds, the TSA and a JetBlue representative looked at the video and decided it was harmless. Still, the JetBlue rep demanded that the video be deleted or Parver would be banned from future JetBlue flights and her name circulated among other airlines as a undesirable passenger.

It all ended pretty badly for Parver. The authorities were about to let her go when she made the mistake of demanding people’s names. A Vegas police officer told her to leave or be arrested. She said, “Arrest me.”

Parver went to jail — though it looks like she wasn’t arrested — before her husband arrived and sprung her.

JetBlue Airlines says it is looking into the incident. Parver has sent angry letters to the airline, the TSA and a host of other agencies.