Delta flight 69 from Seattle to Taipei diverted to Anchorage on March 14 to remove a passenger who called a flight attendant the N-word.
- After meal service on the Airbus A350, when a flight attendant was eating in the galley near the lavatory, the passenger allegedly forcefully grabbed the crewmember’s shoulder to get his attention and asked whether the bathroom was occupied.
- The flight attendant said the lock indicator showed it was occupied, turned back to his meal, but the man kept making disrespectful comments. He then used the lavatory, came out, and restarted the argument
- The passenger claims that the flight attendant spoke to him “in a dismissive manner,” and later “responded in a similarly disrespectful manner.”
- He used ‘the N-word’ toward that attendant, and said he was only being treated poorly because he was white, and then threatened to kick the attendant’s ass when the plane landed.
According to a second flight attendant, the confrontation got hot enough that passengers moved toward the galley to try to calm it down. That crewmember notified the cockpit of a level two disturbance, then escalated it to level three, retrieved restraints, stepped between the men, and repeatedly told the passenger to return to his seat.
There’s disagreement over whether the passenger actually took a swing at the flight attendant. Initial reporting on the incident said yes. The FBI affidavit says no. The second cabin crew member says the passenger took a swing but missed. One relief pilot said he saw the passenger lunge. There’s passenger video that doesn’t appear to have circulated in social media that the FBI reviewed, and it did not show any of this.
Once crew escalated to level three, the cockpit had to be locked. The plane was overweight with fuel. They landed, the passenger was removed, arrested, booked into Anchorage Correctional Complex, and charged under 49 U.S.C. § 46504, interference with flight crew. Passengers described the man as drunk. After two hours on the ground the flight continued to Taipei.. still with the moniker 69.
Parenthetically, I never know quite how to handle ‘the N-word’ for reasons expressed in The Newsroom.
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
So it sounds like the flight was diverted due to passenger behavior, not just the “N” word. I don’t think the flight would have been diverted if 2 black people were calling each other that word.
@Michael Mainello — On the words one should not say at someone while on an airplane, agreed, “N” with the hard-“r”, probably not enough, but still not-cool; on the other hand, the “B” word (not the ‘-itch’ one, you know which one…) yikes, automatic no-fly-list.
The passenger deserves to be banned from flying. Whether or not he used the N word seems irrelevant. No question he caused a needless disturbance and delayed hundreds of other travelers.
Some flight attendants definitely need an “attitude adjustment”. Thanks Hank Jr!
This passenger probably lives in Asia long enough to feel comfortable using N word. Because in Asia, nobody gives a damn about N word. The freedom of speech in Asia is way broader than you can have in America.
@Creditian — Bahahaha. No. Not at all. Tiananmen. Tibet. Taiwan. Say those in mainland China, and you’ll see how ‘free’ speech is over there…
This guy made an ass out of himself the minute he claimed racism. So sick of people doing this when they don’t get their way. There is true racism out there…but it doesn’t sound like this was that.
@Retard – Creditian is obviously not talking about politically-oriented speech adversarial to the Chinese government, you twat. He is referring to political correctness. A sizable percentage of American-born people of East Asian decent, for example, are far more easily offended by so many different things that wouldn’t remotely begin to phase a Chinese or Japanese native.