This video shows an Auckland SkyCare employee (as a service representative to Jetstar) repeating hitting New Zealand radio personality Iain Stables multiple times in the head after a checkin dispute. Stables claimed that he arrived at the counter three minutes after Jetstar’s three-minute check-in rule.
When told he was unable to fly, the employee allegedly said, “If you want that, why don’t you f… off to Air New Zealand?”
Stables reportedly then told the man he was “a loser and you work for a loser airline”. Stables appears to have poked the Jetsar employee on the shoulder before walking off. The customer service representative then follows him out from behind the counter and repeatedly hits Stables in the head.
Iain Stables shortly after the assult by a Jetstar employee
Stables was transported after the assault to Wellington where he was treated with bruising, cuts and a concussion.
The video from October last year was released after it made its appearance in Manukau District Court. The verdict? The judge ruled against Stables in favour of the Jetstar employee citing that the customer service representative “felt threatened”.
Stables now says he’ll file a civil claim against Jetstar; and I suspect that he’ll have a better chance of success given the balance of probabilities are on his side.
Air New Zealand was quick to seize on the incident, placing internet adverts that urged customers to “get flights, not into fights“.
Fair verdict?
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About Marty
Sounds like he got what he deserved…first late for his flight, then assaulted the employee, then got his butt kicked…good in the jetstar employee!
I tend to disagree. Any claim of ‘self defence’ has to be accompanied by an imminent threat followed by an appropriate use of force. Punching a man repeatedly to the head once he’s on the ground is nothing less than as assault.
I think Stables sums it up best when he said that nothing he did should have resulted in that measure of violence. He’s right. Despite the occasional abusive and disruptive passenger, customer service representatives certainly shouldn’t resolve the issue by giving their customer a concussion.
Marty, it appears the judge agreed with me…typical of today’s travelers…show up late, probably threatened the employee, then got his butt kicked and wants to sue. We no longer need gate agents, we need bouncers at the gate.
Marty, I agree with you and frankly am appalled that the judge found that aggressor not guilty. Why did he feel the need to keep punching? He clearly won the physical stoush but kept going after him anyway. I’d personally sue the bastard for assault occassioning actual bodily harm.
Whilst the criminal case may not have found the big dumb bouncer guilty (and he could hardly string a sentence together to save his life – ergo, dumb), a civil case would result in compensation similar to that Nick Darcy fellow case here.
As for Jetstar, they are the new Tiger. Shocking service, shocking staff morale and overall a bad experience for all those concerned. As quantification of my claim, look at what the former boss of Jetstar is now doing to Qantas and tell me if you can’t spot the similarities?
Someone needs to tell Alan Joyce that you can’t apply the low cost carrier model to a premium airline. He’s the quintessential Chief Wiggum when stuck in a hole in the ground and he’s digging; “No, dig up stupid”.