Personnel from a Canadian airline intimidated passengers into shutting down their mobile phone cameras during a gate dispute by erroneously citing an airport ban on filming in the terminal, Travel + Leisure reports.
Irate customers who sat on a grounded Porter Airlines flight for two hours before being returned to the Boston Logan International Airport terminal on January 5 subsequently began filming long lines at the airline’s customer service desk.
The move prompted Porter Airlines employees to demand that passengers delete the video and stop filming, claiming that airport policy prohibited such recordings and threatening to call the police if travellers did not comply.
However, airport officials said that “there is no law or policy that prohibits filming inside Logan Airport, except in secure areas and of security procedures.”
Filming is permitted in public areas as along as it does not “impede passengers or airline operations,” an airport spokesperson added.
Porter Airlines later apologised and laid off the incident to a misunderstanding. “While the request to stop filming or delete footage was incorrect, the intention was only to try and enforce what was believed to be an airport policy,” a spokesperson for Porter Airlines said.
Some airlines have policies against filming their personnel, and may ban video recordings on board aircraft if they are deemed to threaten the safety or comfort of others onboard. Violators could be removed from a flight by the airline, but there is no law against such filming.
