American Airlines attendant scolds passengers over their ‘disgusting’ behaviour in video
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Airline passengers were scolded for verbally abusing American Airlines cabin crew during a flight delay, according to video of the incident.
In footage from 7 June on TikTok, a flight attendant told passengers that abusing cabin crew was “disgusting”, and that it had been “living hell”.
The American Airlines flight, which took off from Los Angeles for Charlotte, was diverted because of bad weather — forcing both passengers and cabin crew to wait it out at Raleigh-Durham airport.
A passenger allegedly told a female flight attendant she was a “fat gorilla” after they argued about face coverings, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Others allegedly chanted “Give them a Snickers!”, after another passenger said sarcastically that flight attendants were threatening to turn around the plane because they hadn’t eaten, after finally taking off from Raleigh-Durham.
A member of cabin crew was also told to “suck my d***”, according to Brent Underwood, a musician from North Carolina who filmed the incident on TikTok.
“There was absolutely no excuse for it”, he told the Observer. “Everybody deserves respect. And everybody deserves to be punished equally for being a rude person like that.”
A flight attendant was filmed standing in front of passengers and saying: “Just like you we have not eaten ourselves, we’ve been delayed here, we’ve catered to you the entire flight and we do it because we love this job”.
“But the fact that we get insulted and mistreated by passengers for things that we cannot control. It is disgusting,” he continued. “Shame on the passengers who have made this flight a living hell for the flight attendants”.
In statement, American Airlines told the Observer: “We take the health and safety of our customers seriously, and our crew members work hard to uphold the federal mask mandate that remains in effect on aircraft and in airports.”
“We value the trust our customers place in our team to care for them throughout their journey, and we expect those who choose to fly with us to treat each other — and our team members — with respect.”
More than 700,000 people have viewed Mr Underwood’s video since it was shared to TikTok.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments