I read this and was simply amazed. First, there is a Flight Attendant who is not familiar with the term “fair dinkum”; second s/he confuses it with a “swear word”; and third, s/he considers uttering it to be “swearing at an attendant”. Did it ever occur to this attendant to ask the passenger what “fair dinkum” meant? Perhaps it didn’t, but I am sure a flight attendant does not have the authority to call the police to a gate at the airport which means she had to report this incident to someone who does have that authority. Why did this person then not follow up and ask a few simple questions?

I am sure that the passenger was embarrassed and I can only hope that the flight attendant, the pilot, and Delta are incredibly embarrassed by this. What if instead of being an Australian English-speaker this passenger had been Italian and had uttered a swear word in Italian? How would the flight attendant have known that it was a swear word? Given this attendant is not very well-read I suspect you could have “cussed up a blue streak” at them in another language and they would have never known. This law of “swearing at attendants” is yet another ridiculous over-reaction to security.

I’ll not fault the attendant (too much) for not knowing what “fair dinkum” means, but I do fault him/her for not asking. There are many things I do not know but I do try to ask questions.

Did someone pass a law making it illegal to use common sense? Think people!