Southwest Airlines Karen Screams, Refusing To Get Off The Plane

Have you ever enjoyed a flight so much you didn’t want to get off? Even my very first time on in Cathay Pacific first class over a decade ago I was ready to deplane. But Southwest Airlines?

It’s common for a Southwest flight to end and some passengers to stay on the plane. That’s because on ‘through flights’ passengers connecting on the plane’s next segment stay on board while everyone else gets off. Then a flight attendant counts the through passengers on the plane. They can get off to stretch their legs and reboard (with the same boarding pass as their first flight!) or stay where they’re at.

But it’s very unusual to see everyone getting off the plane, and a passenger just decide to stay. And it’s not even for the free peanuts, which Southwest eliminated a couple of years ago.

In a video that’s going viral on Twitter and elsewhere, a woman just sits there when it’s her row’s time to get off the plane. A flight attendant asks her if she’s going to get off… or just stay in place and have a freakout.

Another passenger is getting antsy, saying she needs to get off to use the bathroom. She wades through past the woman who is seated, that woman begins to screen. And it looks like the seated white woman even tries to reach for the standing black woman’s clothing.

The Southwest flight attendant then steps in with a scolding, which she takes her mask down for, and the passenger who wouldn’t get up finally does.

It’s the scream that makes this is a ‘public freakout’ in Reddit parlance. I have to think that the woman screaming has challenges of her own that she’s facing. She’s wearing a mask (and from the two straps it appears to be an N95).

These are stressful times as it is, and throw everyone together (who wouldn’t choose it under other circumstances) inside a metal time, shake or stir, and every so often things break down. Fortunately it doesn’t appear that this ended with law enforcement, because Spirit Airlines wasn’t involved. Social media has dubbed her a Karen.

(HT: C Boarding Group)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Other than the scream, which was really irritating and possibly a sign of mental disorder, there’s not enough information in the video to judge what was going on. I stay in my window seat until the de-boarding rush has passed and never been questioned. There’s something else going on here that the flight attendant was involved and passengers behind her were waiting.

  2. So when will we begin prescreening all pax for mental illness?

    @Gary why did you (not simply ‘social media’) use the term “Karen” in this post? It’s known to be a perjorative term. Perhaps you know that is this passenger’s name?

    So what term would you have used to describe her if she weren’t Caucasian? Curious minds would like to know.

  3. Flew 4 segments last week. First time in almost a year. Nothing like this happened thank goodness! Flew AA and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Did observe some flight crew, TSA, and passengers violating the mask rules but no fuss was made about it. This lady has to have some kind of mental issue going on.

  4. @Joe – you are a pathetic Q Anon worshipping loser. Really just a sad, weak minded individual.

  5. Gary – I realize there may not be a lot of good travel deals and stories right now but why would you waste space even posting this. A woman sat there (maybe disoriented or otherwise disturbed), screamed when someone went past (maybe overly paranoid about someone close) then go off when the FA spoke w her.

    Nothing here worth posting and you wasted 1 minute of my life. PLEASE quit posting these and the “National Enquirer” level stories you seem so fond of lately. Maybe you have to post 5 stories a day to get your CC commission but if you aren’t on a quota just don’t post those. Be like GSTP and only post 1 story that may actually benefit people instead of 2-3 fluff pieces. Your readers would appreciate it!

  6. She is a Karen because with no legitimate reason she screams.
    And the tone and inflection of her scream is, “HELP ME”
    Karens call the cops as an act of aggression, from a position of white privilege they are so sure that the cops will automatically defer to their false version of events.
    Did you see the face of the second black woman? It was priceless.
    You have to take into consideration that something was going on before the camera started rolling or else why roll the camera?
    I agree with Gary, another Karen flying story.

  7. C’mon, folks. She’s not a “Karen.” She clearly mentally ill. Social media really gets sloppy with labels sometimes.

  8. @Joe – why don’t you tell us all about the baby-eating cannibal elites in control of the world? Since you are so concerned w/pedophilia and “saving the children”. That is the Q Anon mantra after all.

    You have a mental illness…sad.

  9. Flight Attendant needs more training. Obviously the pax is not mentally well. Let everyone else off, then deal with her

  10. Agree with nosey parker. Bringing all the pressure and attention in the room down on a person experiencing a mental episode is not a productive plan.

    Agree with AC, I used to click on these stories because I respected Gary’s curation and figured there would be something interesting here but this blog is starting to just post the same videos my no-filter friend keeps forwarding me on facebook.

Comments are closed.