On Friday evening’s American Airlines flight AA2205 from Dallas Fort-Worth to Miami a passenger reports that a woman got up from coach and moved into first class on the Boeing 777-200 in order to sit with a friend while the plane was still boarding. She hid in the friend’s seat.
The aircraft was completely full, with every seat taken. So a flight attendant noticed that while the plane was taxiing out a passenger was missing from their seat in back. There was “a purse sitting in the seat” and passengers around the empty seat reported that a woman had gotten up and left, never to return.
This all went down after a 90 minute delay caused by “a catering truck [that] had hit a cargo door.”
According to the eyewitness account, the woman was hiding underneath the ottoman of the premium seat up front. And the whole scheme was meant to drum up interest in her social media profile.
I saw the friend crawl under the J seat (more exactly the television console) but began to watch a movie. Well apparently the plan was for this woman’s friend to remain there the entire flight as it’s something they thought would drive viewers to their “You Tube Channel”.
…[T]here’s an announcement for this [passenger] to identify herself or we can’t take off. At that point I realize that she’s hiding under her friend’s..seat. I can tell the [aircraft] is pulling off the taxiway to park and as soon as it’s parked my intention is to ring the call button if this woman doesn’t give herself up. She does and tries to sneak back into [coach] but is immediately busted by the [cabin crew].
The aircraft, registration N758AN, features American’s newer Super Diamond business class seat. The footwell isn’t huge.
The flight’s captain announced a “security issue” and proceeded to return to the gate. The woman hiding under her friend’s seat up front “scream[ed] that she’s being disrespected, did nothing wrong, she paid good money for her ticket and that she has a child at home waiting for her.” And at that point she’s “also taken off her mask” (natch).
She’s removed from the plane, and the actual first class passenger is too. Now that passenger “refuses and continues to scream sans mask.” After all, she was only an accomplice. That’s when,
[T]he Captain bolts out of cockpit, very unhappy and tells the woman to get off the [aircraft]. She refuses and the police show up to drag her off. In the meantime another [coach passenger] starts to cuss out a [flight attendant] because of the delay and the police drag him off.
All told, between the initial delay and the return to the gate in Dallas to remove passengers, the flight ran nearly 3 hours late.
Amazing that the entire b777 was full to the last seat on a domestic flight
1. Charge them with costs of delay.
2 Ban all three from ALL airlines.
Baff!
Sick of Selfish A holes wasting everyone’s time
This is stupid. Please stick to your posts that offer analysis – it’s what you do best
Would have been really cool if the captain yelled “get off my plane”
Too many [redacted] flying!
United seems to be a no frills airline. Flight Attendants think their Gods. Your late your screwed, but if they are late your still screwed. They just DON’T care.
AA really likes to cram the plane full of people during a pandemic.
If you all don’t like commercial air travel, take the bus!!
This is where this great nation is heading to. No one wants to abide law, the only country in the world where illegals can proclaim they are undocumented and they have rights, the only country that has no borders, the only country that gives jobs to outsiders while citizens are jobless, the only country where visas are concerned into citizenship, the only country where uniformed personnel are asked to not implement law so that hearts are not broken or they will be defunded…
view from the mask
@RF… nobody is being forced to fly, if they are concerned. Nobody is forced to fly on AA.. that is the great thing about living in a free society.
These 3 pax should be banned from AA
The height of entitled behavior. Glad the pilot was forceful. Charges should be filed against all three as well as an airline ban.
Nuts. American Flight Attendant should just tell the YouTuber to get back to their coach seat. Matter solved. American is being needlessly, inanely hard-nosed.
People are plain stupid.
There was no problem! —until the American Flight Attendant AND the Captain made it a problem. The passenger was returning to their seat! Matter was solved! I lost a lot of regard for American AL here. Stupid Flight Attendant, stupid Captain. It’s nuts.
This story is about an American airlines flight not United airlines.
I hope that no one reporting this story divulges this person’s name or YT. Don’t give them any publicity.
They don’t seem to care that other pax have REAL business to attend to.
I do appreciate how you didn’t link to her youtube channel. No reason to give that person free publicity
You try to pull on over …. and your get caught… good for the airline!
Gary, do you simply nix the comments you don’t agree with?
@Dee Miller, they’re, you’re, you’re, you’re.
Those idiots should be banned from all airlines. Nobody should have to deal with their BS. Let the morons take a bus.
The plane was not to full. This BS intensified flu shutting down our economy is exactly the agenda of the left. I have over 30,000 miles during pandemic and no issues. All with American Airlines. So stop the complaining about flights to full. Open up American.
They should have banned them for this nonsense.
I think it’s shit that these airlines are running at max capacity. That’s worse than someone who bought a ticket and decided to sit under a seat.
Once every single person boarded the plane the gate agent give a list to the steward with the passengers list from first class to the last seat next to the restroom. I’m surprised that actually it happened after they closed the door, cause the flight attendant needs to count the passengers and check that everybody is on the seat and if someone is missing and at the same time shows that the boarding is being scan the gate and ramp agents need find out what’s going on and for the first class flight attendant didn’t do a great job and door can’t be closed till everything is fix… I worked for 2 different airlines
What is with this society where miscreants can still scream that they are being ‘disrespected’. It is their behaviour which has caused significant delays in the flight and they still have the nerve to bitch about people’s reaction to their “I am entitled” stance. In some countries they would deservedly be jailed!
If people were forced to reimburse the airline for fuel, crew cost, engine start cycles, agents and ground crew cost and had their salaries garnished to insure payment, maybe this nonsense would stop.
I hope the police beat them in some back room, these non mask wearing people need to be tazered, beaten and kept of planes.
To Dee Miller, I bet you think the same of anyone ,police ,judges,managers who is required to maintain order… oh wait YOU think YOU dont have to abide by the rules, because you think you’re a god… got it.
I would love to contact Gary about a problem I had with American Airlines..the worst airline. Can I get an email address please.
Flight attendant are official officers on board. And Captain is the head of the prosecution office officially he can issue marriage certificates or death certificate. Or order the cabin crew to arrest any passenger who endanger the aircraft or passengers and yes you can get married on the plane according to the rules of the country’s air space you flying over also birth certificate isseuesd by captain
Just another case of ‘Kittle Koncern’ lacking any concept of care for others, except of that for themselves.
Complaining of being “dissed” while doing the same to others… perfect example of our times…
OMG, Deja vu. Long live retirement !!!!!!! I saw that so many times, even on 727 aircraft. LMAO.
F@#k flying these days, reflecting corporate America psychology, soon be hyperloop, or evan overnight sleeper bus rather than airport and airline fascists, security queues baggage queues etc.
My daughter and her husband were on this plane. It was nightmare. They were sitting in the plane for almost three hours before it finally took off.
It is Trump’s land, why is it so hard to just throw them in jail. These three idiots are lucky they are not shot like the other black folks who are not that lucky. These idiots are probably white A holes!
Ha ha! She got what she deserved. This story gave me a good laugh.
Why on earth does AA feel the need to pack a plane 100% full?!?! Stooooppoiiddddd
@Susan Roth – I publish my gary-at-viewfromthewing.com email address on this blog
@Glen Danielsen – absolutely not
So you’re telling me two women violeted rules and refused to take responsibility for it? Oh my, I’m shocked!
Really, we despair over these cretinous social media ‘influencers’ and their sh!t for brains audience. This woman deserves to be ‘disrespected’ right into jail; evidently she has nothing but contempt for the rights of the other passengers.
Please, please, find out what happened/ after they were tossed? Did the police detain or arrest them, or just question them and release? Did AA book them on another flight, or refund the ticket as an involuntary denied boarding? What is the protocol to note the PNR in a case like this? Are any of these pax banned from AA? When a flight does a gate return, like this, are there specific AA employees that meet it or just any gate agent? Does AA have corp security reps in DFW?
Once your on a plane the flight attendants are gods they have authority over you so suck it up or get off if you can’t handle it
@Boston she was most likely banned from flying AA so would have to fly on another airline or take the bus. People get banned daily for failure to comply with the mask policy. Even when if they have a stop in the middle of their trip, they can be stuck at that city. So difficult for people to follow the rules nowadays. I feel bad for the other passengers that do because why should they have to suffer. Better to remove the passengers that can’t follow the rules, while on the ground, to prevent anything else happening after take off.
As for all of the people on here asking why the planes are full, its because American is losing millions of dollars a day. They need the revenue or its gonna go bankrupt. You all know the risks by now. If you’re not comfortable with it, take the bus or buy 2 seats, or just don’t fly. Its that easy. The planes are cleaner and more sanitary than any grocery store or restaurant and they have hepa filters which keeps the air significantly cleaner.
I understand this woman was completely out of line. However why not simply send her back to the seat and get on with the flight. You can always ban her and the accomplice later on without further negative impact on the other passengers. Let’s use some common sense here AA. The airlines seem to be severely lacking in that as of late.
The crew took exactly the right steps in this case. The person hiding in first who left an empty seat in coach could just as easily have been a terrorist who manged to slip off the plane leaving behind explosives in hand baggage or checked luggage. The crew had no way of knowing what had happened until the miscreant surrendered.
The punishment handed out, as other readers have noted, was minimal in comparison to the damage caused. This event supports the argument that social media provides a global platform for undeserving idiots.
Oh yeah we deserved to be blamed for we are disrespecting those that disrespect the law/regulations. If the laws and regulations are fair these ‘miscreants’ would not have broken them. So its the laws and regulations and us that are disrespecting their rights.
but that begs a question: why did she hide under the console?
Airlines are booking the flights full now even Southwest made the announcement last week. If you want to control capacity charter or buy your own aircraft .
AA just be a little more professional. Dr Fauci said in the beginning that masks were not necessary then Pelosi at the hair salon told the truth. It’s all a plot to unseat our wonderful President. Yes people died but they had other ailments. Old age but then insurance won’t pay on that.