An American Airline passenger caused a 30-minute delay by yelling an offensive remark at a flight attendant and threatening another passenger on a flight from Tampa to Philadelphia on Tuesday, with the news media outlet Metro reporting that the offensive passenger yelled antisemitic slurs.
The passenger was forcibly removed from the flight.
The incident was posted on the social media platform X. The footage shows how the incident developed until the passenger was removed from the airplane.
The unidentified individual is standing in the aisle and begins to say loudly, “I will universally, publicly, mess you up.” He continued arguing with a flight attendant regarding the appropriateness of raising his voice to a “female,” using multiple slurs.
The flight attendant, not expecting the passenger’s argument, was taken aback, while the passenger continued to verbally abuse the flight attendant, then aggressively yelling “You are teaming up! do you see how most of the people are white here?”
Another passenger called the first passenger over, and as they began to argue, a flight attendant was seen calling for assistance saying, “I need 1-1.” As the argument heated up, it turned from a verbal altercation to a physical one.
In-flight altercation resolved
The second passenger quickly grabbed the offensive passenger and held him in a tight headlock, telling the person to “put your hands down and don’t touch anybody.” As a third passenger claiming to be a policewoman attempted to intervene, the second passenger claimed to be a policeman as well.
American Airlines later issued a statement apologizing for the disturbance and expressing gratitude to their team for handling the situation professionally.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
