The Corporate Blackmailer

The traveler sitting by my side in the aircraft was frantic.

Next minute he was buzzing for the air hostess by repeatedly pressing the overhead call button.

Then, he lost all the patience and started yelling, “Stewardess, I am dying, rush up. I am dying.”

On hearing the shout, an air hostess approached him and enquired politely, “Sir, what can I do for you? Do you need anything? Hope, you are enjoying the breakfast. ”

She had served the breakfast to all the passengers just a few minutes ago.

He dismissed what the air hostess was saying and became very arrogant and screamed, “Are you all set to kill me or what? Is that the price I have to pay to travel by your airlines?”

“What is the matter, sir, are you not feeling well?” the air hostess asked.

He retorted, “You are asking me if I am not feeling well knowing fully well what you are doing to me. You know damn well what kind of rotten stuff you are feeding us for the breakfast and not only it is rotten, you are mixing up the insects in it- you are out to kill me.”

And he showed to the air-hostess and to me and to the passenger sitting on the other side of him couple of dead insects (looking like mosquitoes) encased inside the cellophane wrapping over the dessert bowl that was served as part of the breakfast.

He continued, “Gentlemen, this is what they feed us for the meals, the insects, the mosquitoes. Good thing that I noticed this or I would have eaten the stuff and died.” He further added, “I am very careful with the airlines meals these days. Just a couple of days earlier, I was traveling by another reputed international airliner and there too I came across the food infested with the insects. I got the airline staff onboard to sign on a written complaint, also signed by a witness who was my co-passenger and sent the copy of the document along with the infested food to my legal team of my company. They sued the airlines and I got a very hefty compensation from the airlines in an out of court settlement. The airlines did not want an adverse publicity.”

Then, he turned to the air hostess and said, “I have prepared this complaint and please sign on it confirming that you agree that there were insects in the food served to me. I will get this thing now also witnessed by one of these gentlemen who have also noticed this whole affair.”

The air hostess was quite young and inexperienced in such matters; she felt terribly ruffled and excused herself to fetch an elderly and mature looking chief stewardess.

The chief stewardess came and before she could open her mouth, the person holding the bowl of dessert became offensive once again, “Are you all going to kill me or what? Please sign up this complaint which I have made in duplicate. One I will keep and one you will hand over to the appropriate person in your organization. I am going to get these two gentlemen to sign as witnesses.”

The chief stewardess seemed quite an experienced professional, she had some presence of mind and replied with lots of concern for this complaining passenger, “Sir, you will excuse me but I do not have authority to deal with such important matters. Only the pilot is authorized to commit anything on it. I will go to the cockpit and call the pilot. He would come and listen to you.”

And then, she ran to the cockpit showing the urgency towards this matter. She conferred with the pilot who was intelligent enough to understand the overtures of the entire matter that might ultimately blow up into something that might be damaging to the reputation of the airlines. He needed some time to think. He briefed the chief stewardess accordingly and sent her back.

She came to the complainant and said, “The pilot is quite sorry for the entire event and quite concerned about your well being. However, he wishes to be excused right now since the aircraft is about to land in a few minutes time and he cannot come out of the cockpit and attend to you. After landing, kindly meet our ground commercial staff where he will present himself and confer with you. Hope, it’s OK with you.”

To this the reply was, “OK, seems like he is a wise guy. Let him know that if he acts smart, I am going to alert my legal team and they will sue your company for a huge compensation. I will also not hesitate to notify the entire episode to the press. So, ask your pilot to better meet me immediately after landing.”

In the mean time, he got the other co-passenger sign as witness on the papers he had prepared. The aircraft had landed and I deliberately got busy collecting my luggage and got myself physically away from the scene.

I did not wish to be a part to the corporate blackmailer because of something that I recalled of him towards the end of the entire scene. I recollected from his initial introduction to me that he owned a big company with a corporate office and with proper legal setup. But I also recollected him taking out something from his briefcase and opening up the cellophane wrapper of the dessert bowl of the breakfast and inserting something into it and then re-wrapping the dessert bowl. He had definitely planted the mosquito looking insects into the dessert. And I don’t remember having seen him writing any complaint in front of me. I think that he had perhaps prepared the document even before boarding the aircraft.

He was a thorough professional corporate blackmailer.

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