An American Airlines flight attendant was captured on viral TikTok video berating passengers who verbally abused the crew after the flight was diverted in bad weather.
In the viral clip, a 22-year-old man on the Monday flight from LA to Charlotte, North Carolina, calls a female flight attendant “a fat gorilla” and also shouted obscenities at her after she told him to wear a face mask.
“There was absolutely no excuse for it,” said musician Brent Underwood, 39, of the band 87&Pine, who recorded the video.“It doesn’t matter what you look like. Everybody deserves respect. And everybody deserves to be punished equally for being a rude person like that. Why would you call a person a fat gorilla?”.
Bad weather forced the flight to divert to the Raleigh Durham airport, where it sat for three hours and was refueled. It had circled the Charlotte airport for a half-hour earlier.
When a male flight attendant announces the flight would return to Raleigh if passengers don’t behave, a woman sarcastically complains that the crew members were just upset because they hadn’t eaten, the video shows.
“Give them a Snickers!” a passenger yells.
While sitting in Raleigh, only water and cookies were available onboard.
“Just like you, we have not eaten also,” the male flight attendant is heard telling the passengers. “We’ve catered to you the entire flight. We do it because we love this job. But the fact that we get insulted and mistreated by passengers over things we cannot control is disgusting. But shame on the passengers that have made this flight a living hell for the flight attendants.”
His comments were met by applause in the cabin.
“Flight attendants on @officialamericanairways are done with your b.s.!” Underwood wrote on TikTok with the hashtags #AmericanAirlines, #facemask and #dumbcustomers.
“The flight crew did absolutely nothing wrong. They were more professional than I would have been.”
American Airlines said in a statement: “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,” it added.
None of the passengers were removed or arrested, according to the report.
Article and video from The New York Post
