American Airlines Gate Agent Gets Physical With Passenger, Grabbing At Her Phone In Heated Boarding Dispute

A confrontation took place between an American Airlines passenger and gate agent in Miami, with the passenger walking down the jetbridge without being given permission to board and – it seems – the employee grabbing at the woman’s phone (she was filming the interaction) and grabbing her.

  • It appears that the flight was close to being closed out. The agent reveals that there are several passengers in the gate area waiting on standby. The woman apparently wasn’t allowed to board at that point.

  • I’m not sure if she was late to the gate and being offloaded in favor of another passenger, or she was on standby herself. But it was only during the conflict itself that the agent declares to her, “you’re off the flight!”

  • At the start of the video, he can be heard demanding “Stop recording me right now!” She walks past the door to the jetbridge and he yells “Get out of the Jetbridge right now! Get out! … Step back. [He grabs at her phone] Delete that picture right now!”

  • She responds, “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Don’t put your [expletive] hands on me!”

The passenger demands that the gate agent get a manager or the police. She asks a friend to call the police, heads down the jetbridge, and the agent demands she stop. The confrontation continues. “You’re not getting on my plane!”

Another employee says she “did call somebody” and the passenger says “y’all was sitting there looking at people looking stupid.” The agent concedes she’s “not disagreeing” that her colleague shouldn’t have laid hands on her. “Y’all think that’s funny, you’re all laughing at me for enforcing the rule?” And she asks, “so we can’t laugh?”

According to American Airlines,

We are investigating a recent event at Miami International Airport (MIA) and are in the process of learning more from the team member and customers involved.

Though the way in which the passenger is acting improperly isn’t fully clear, it is obvious she’s not supposed to be boarding the aircraft. She shouldn’t head down the jetbridge.

However there’s almost nowhere else on the planet with more law enforcement per capita than a major international airport. It does seem this should be handled by law enforcement. Ultimately, it’s tough to separate the security concern from the concern he has over being videotaped! They’re probably both wrong here.

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. The agent should be permanently banned from any employment that has contact with children, customers, or other employees. That is not too draconian. With those measures, there will not be these incidents.

  2. She was told to stop and not board the plane. She didn’t stop and made it clear she was going to get on the plane. How do you stop her if not touching her?

    No sympathy for the woman.

  3. This is on the passenger. She was asked to stop and not board the aircraft but she chose to ignore those instructions.

  4. The gate agent should have immediately called the police and informed the Captain. The police would have come on and told the woman either exit the plane immediately or be arrested. Miami Dade police aren’t a group you want to play games with. The passenger could either immediately deplane or go to jail. No reason for the gate agent to go nuts.

  5. Agree with @Thing1 and @Adam T – she is an entitled person that broke the law basically by trespassing trying to board a plane that she wasn’t allowed to be on. Could even be hit with terrorism charges in the extreme. Any action required to stop her was warranted.

    @derek – I think AA should reward the gate agent for his actions. We have become too soft. There are times physical restraint (or even violence) is warranted and if she wasn’t going to respond to his request to get out of the jetway he had every right to remove her physically.

  6. The agent should be commended – for escorting her at a protected secure area (jet bridge) – Give the employee a raise and a day off with pay!

  7. According to Florida law, you cannot film anyone without their consent, this includes customer service interactions. Anyone who goes down a jetway without permission is in the wrong and should be ejected from the area. Period.

  8. Agree with @George N Romey completely. The GA is NOT allowed to touch the Pax – that constitutes simple battery. The GA is NOT allowed to take the Pax’s phone – that constitutes robbery.

    Doesn’t matter what the Pax was photographing. Don’t care if the Pax was behaving inappropriately – which she was. The GA is not a LEO and has no authority to grab anyone or anything.

    The Captain and police should have been notified. They get to handle the matter.

  9. Legally, any time someone has unwanted physical contact with you, e.g., touching your wrist, it’s Assault. Police may not file it, Prosecutors probably won’t accept it, but it’s grounds for a Civil Suit. I’m sure that’s taught in AA’s School .. the GA obviously lost his temper, did real foolish things.

  10. Human trash she is
    unfortunately way to much of it these days
    Can I axe her a question?
    what is the poh-leece

  11. The GA should be sacked.

    The pax should not have been physically stopped, but rather have the police give her the Dr. Dao treatment.

  12. @АС
    This does not qualify for terrorism charges as specified in FS 775.30.
    The state crime that the passenger may have committed here is trespass as specified in FS 810.08. (FS 776.031 allows nondeadly force to be used to stop a trespasser.)
    As for federal charges…
    18 USC 2199 (stowaway) wouldn’t apply as the passenger was not on the plane when it departed.
    49 USC 46314 (trespass) may or may not apply, but it’s mainly focused on circumventing security.

  13. GA should have immediately called the police and not handled it himself. If she’d been injured, not only would AA face a civil suit, but he also would have been sued as an individual. I doubt he has personal insurance for such an incident, and he could have been ruined financially for life.

  14. It will be interesting to find out why this passenger thought she had the right to proceed down the jet bridge. She kept saying call somebody.

  15. “TM” above is absolutely WRONG about making recordings in public in Florida ! In Florida, there is NO specific law prohibiting the filming of public service interactions, as long as you are in a public place. Florida’s “two-party consent law” (Fla. Stat. § 934.03) applies ONLY to recording conversations, meaning both parties must consent to being recorded, but only if there is an EXPECTATION of privacy – Which does not apply to public spaces and business open to the public.

  16. It’s not clear if the plane is still there or the boarding process has been done. If it is still there….the captain should be called. If it’s not there anymore, security should be called and that woman will be banned from flying in any airline for good. Entering into the jet bridge without permission is illegal and a security breach.

  17. All I see is her complaining to TikTok about American Airlines banning her and now she has to fly spirit and she’s gonna learn on spirit that slick mouth of hers going to have the crew put hands on her! They don’t care about their job lol

  18. No Boarding Pass and she still has an attitude? Good luck getting on the airplane . . . ever. She is entitled, entitled to a lifetime ban. Airlines don’t need customers that behave like this woman.

  19. I can’t believe that there are people commenting that the AA employee is wrong…lolololol. This hoodrat lady is showing her true colors and people think her rights were violated? Good on the gate agent for not letting her do whatever she thinks she can do. By letting her on the plane, he’s potentially allowing a bigger problem and more delays to get her raggedy low life ass removed. Too much garbage being allowed to fly nowadays.

  20. That appears to be the agent who used his size to lean over me, physically intimidate me, and berate me when I asked for help because of a 3+ hour flight delay back in March. I’m a 5’4″ white woman who weighs around 125 lbs, and he is huge and was very deliberately getting in my physical space in a way that was beyond inappropriate. He shouted at my husband when he objected to his treatment of me and made my daughter cry. He should be fired regardless of what’s happening in this video. No man should deliberately use his size to threaten a women. Obviously.

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