Bloggers Insight to an In-flight Death

Diane Clarkson | February 26, 2008, 01:25 PM

Carine Desir's recent death on a NY-bound American Airlines flight has sparked much controversy following her family’s claim that the flight crew initially refused her request for oxygen and both oxygen tanks and defibrillator did not work properly.

American Airlines disputes the family’s claim, saying treatment began within two to three minutes of the woman’s difficulty breathing being brought to the flight attendant’s attention.

I had a couple of conversations about this yesterday with colleagues, wondering if overall traveler’s frustration with airlines might supersede their benefit-of-the-doubt that the airline acted appropriately.

I wrote a report earlier this year called "Travel Blogs
Aligning Marketing Objectives with Blog Strategy" that looked at the market intelligence available in blog comments so, out of curiosity, I took a look today at USA Today to see the blog responsts to the story.

For American Airlines, these blogs comments provide some measure of public response to the story. The pervading sentiment is that reasonable questions exist but American Airlines deserves the benefit of the doubt.

What surprised me was the number of posts condemning Ms. Desir’s weight, eating habits, lifestyle, decision to fly: “It's a shame this woman died, but American Airlines didn't shove the Ring Dings down this woman’s throat”

Sometimes blog comments provide insightful market intelligence. Sometimes they merely provide insight into something more cold-hearted.