On being thrown off a plane for looking ‘disruptive’
• I think it was a morning flight to the West Coast. I was seated in row 26 with my friend next to me. When the flight attendant came on in the cabin, we all sat down except for the woman who sat opposite of me. I looked at the flight attendant and said “Excuse me, there is another passenger here.”
The flight attendant goes, “Come here with me,” and she got up. My friend stood up too and at that moment, other passengers were coming out of their seats to look around. This flight attendant was flirting with my friend and we became friends and well, I felt that this didn’t feel right.
Later when everyone got off the plane, we would go into the cabin and see this woman who was drinking, eating, and had rowdy children. The flight attendant would come over and say, “Can you not be disruptive for a minute,” to which she would respond by saying, “I am drinking my whiskey and serving my children their popcorn and candy.”
We passengers paid for our drinks, seats, luggage, food, etc. Now all of us are grumpy and in the mood to have an argument with this woman. I felt my friend didn’t deserve to be treated like this and other passengers did as well.
• This was an international flight and the captain came on the aircraft. After the announcement that the aircraft could be operating with another passenger onboard, the woman proceeded to sit down at her assigned seat. When the captain announced that the aircraft would be operating with another passenger onboard, the woman took action, shouting, swearing and blowing her head. She was then kicked off the aircraft and escorted out of the airport for her bad behavior.
We were a group of medical students and after that, we are friends. We’re trying to study medicine and I must say, it was my first time experiencing being kicked off a plane for behavior that we don’t normally see. The woman couldn’t be calmed down and I truly felt the captain made the right decision.
• I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but it is something that has to happen sometimes. But not usually. A woman got annoyed and started making weird faces at the flight attendant. She was not loud enough for us to tell her to stop – and fortunately we were in a spacious first-class section of the plane, but of course it’s not that nice in coach. She kept making these faces and several passengers had to get up and point out what she was doing. She was finally yelled at by the crew and the passenger on the other side of the aisle.
But this lady did not pay the airline. I think everyone should pay attention. If you go to the tarmac or to the bathroom and do the same thing as this woman, you get kicked off the plane.
Theresa Tham