On Thursday, American Airlines flight 950 from São Paulo to New York JFK was delayed 30 minutes by weather. As the Boeing 787-9 began taxiing out to runway 28R, a business class passenger got up from her seat and confronted a flight attendant at the rear galley. There was a heated exchange – shouting and insults – as the woman questioned the flight attendant over the delay.
The crewmember alerted the captain about a woman who wouldn’t stay seated during taxi. They returned to the gate to remove the woman. The u-turn angered her, and when she realized this was about her, she rose from her seat again, approached the front of the cabin, and as one of the pilot exited the lavatory, she went off on him about the delay.
This was treated as an attempt to breach the cockpit, and the woman was restrained by crew – pinning her to the floor of the cabin. She can be heard in a passenger’s video shouting in Portuguese, “Aren’t you ashamed? I’ll kick you in the balls.”
Mais confusão em um voo da American Airlines!
Desta vez, uma passageira brasileira foi até a cabine do voo AA950, que partiria de Guarulhos para o JFK, e cobrou o piloto sobre o atraso
Ela foi contida por um dos comissários e, posteriormente, proferiu ofensas homofóbicas. pic.twitter.com/HNfHXrvr0L
— AEROIN (@aero_in) April 28, 2025
A passenger seated in 1D intervened, calling out to someone identified as Caio to stop restraining the woman while simultaneously urging her to calm down. The restrained passenger continued directing insults and using explicit and homophobic language towards flight attendants including
You son of a bitch, disgusting, you can’t touch me, you don’t know who you’re talking to, you’re going to get screwed. I went to ask why I was late and this faggot threw me out.
American Airlines Concept D Business Class
Ultimately, the woman and the male passenger from seat 1D, along with their companions, were taken off the plane by authorities. The April 24 flight was ultimately delayed about two and a half hours.
One reader who shared this to me wrote, “Another Karen, this time on AA GRU-JFK trying to invade” the cockpit.
I watched the video on OMAT. She deserved to be tackled. She should be arrested and put on a permanent No Fly List. Next time let her take a slow boat to South America.
What a idiot. She thinks what the pilots control the weather? The bit$$ was sitting in business class. Like sitting in a lie flat seat for 30 minutes is some kind of crime against humanity.
@George N Romey — You forgot to include your typical reference to Cluster B personality disorders. It’s sad. I presume this lady just needs help. So many undiagnosed psychological issues. While it is tempting to immediately go to the n-th degree (Burn her! She’s a witch! Deport her! No fly list!), I urge a little more understanding and patience. This person is not a literal terrorist. Let’s turn down the temperature, please.
This could have been much worse. An aggressive rude passenger got a salsa style dip to the floor.
Slightly off topic but it seems like the term “Karen” is beginning to lose its central meaning, which hopefully means it will soon fizzle out as a pejorative.
Some people are just crazy and stupid, but one has to consider that this is more likely to be related to taking a benzodiazapine based drug to help sleep on an overnight flight.
It wasn’t so long ago that JFK-GRU was AA’s single most profitable route. Now it’s been down-gauged to a 787 while AA is flying 777s to leisure destinations from PHL? How did AA let that happen?
Yeah, pretty sure she was decidedly *not* “another Karen.”
Ah the good old USA where the ignoratti are encouraged to behave in a truly classless fashion by a crazy rude cruel president. Make America Gross Again.
There is another crime here that wasn’t reported – after “Karen” and her traveling companions were ejected those business class seats went empty for remainder of the fright.
@Mak — Speaking of ‘down-gaging,’ one of those 787s now flies PHL-DOH, which used to be covered by OW partner, QR, sometimes with Q-Suite in Business Class. Can you imagine the disappointment of expecting/hoping to experience the worlds best airline, then just getting American Airlines lackluster ‘service’ (both hard and soft products are objectively inferior to QR).
Once this gets to the USA gov she will be turned right back around at jfk deported and banned! She really done messed up for good here! This administration is not playing around at all.
Why are we having so many badly-behaving (and worse) people where we aren’t used to see them, from heads of state down?
@Rozellevm — Do you even read the articles before you comment? I’ll help you. Gary wrote: “Ultimately, the woman and the male passenger from seat 1D, along with their companions, were taken off the plane by authorities.” They never flew to JFK. Also, ‘deportation’ for this incident would probably be considered ‘cruel and unusual’ if not ‘arbitrary’ punishment. As I said above: Folks. Please Turn. Down. The. Temp. Please. Stop the brinksmanship. We don’t need to ‘burn the witch.’
Came for the comments; was not disappointed!
@1990 “cluster B personality disorder” also known as parents didn’t tell you “no” often enough and now you have the mind of an eight year old in the body of a grownup.
Pretty much?
Ah, the ugly people in the expensive seats that are often catered to.
Speaking of lack of class, did anyone notice the barefoot passenger at the beginning of the video who was watching from part way in the aisle?
“Mike Judge was unavailable for comment.”
AA FAs often see passengers as a “necessary annoyance” and rarely put in professional effort on their job, but in this case, they were spot on in neutralizing the aggressive, entitled lady.
Homophobic language, the “you don’t know who you’re talking to” part, traveling in business class…
100% sure that Karen is an empowered “Bolsonarista”, the equivalent to a MAGA in the US. Unbearable People!
@1990 You seem to want to give a pass to adults that think toddler behavior is perfectly acceptable. If she has mental health issues that’s up to her to get help. That’s what an adult is about-making adult decisions. And yes she’s a total Cluster B. In her world she was the only passenger on that flight that mattered.
In my carryon I have a piece of piano wire connected to two rings on each end. When some nutcaee goes off, you just flip it over and around their neck and pull tight. They’ll calm right down.
I was held hostage once for 12 hours on a flight from Chicago to New York. For roughly 6 of those hours, the aircraft was powered down with no air conditioning. And who hasn’t had a “20 minutes delay” drag on-15 minutes at a time-for hours? Airlines don’t control the weather,but sometimes the way passengers are treated is inexcusable.
Who is Caio???? People want to know!!!
DFWSteve: “In my carryon I have a piece of piano wire connected to two rings on each end. When some nutcaee [sic] goes off, you just flip it over and around their neck and pull tight. They’ll calm right down.”
Nutcase says what?
JimC2: “cluster B personality disorder” also known as parents didn’t tell you “no” often enough and now you have the mind of an eight year old in the body of a grownup. Pretty much?
Pretty much no.
Who’s the guy with no foot coverings? That’s gross…
@1990 – Every day, fighting the good fight.
Barefoot guy (presumably crazy woman’s husband) showed an enormous amount of uncouthness here. As recently as the 80s you would never see a guy like that, acting like a farm animal, on a plane, let alone up front.
Even, or perhaps especially, in business class you can find gross people. Let’s speculate – if she had found out what caused the delay what was she going to do about it? Demand another drink? Sheesh.
@Steve. Many of us very frequent travelers have run out of patience for loutish and often dangerous behavior on commercial aircraft. We desire others to to as we do: be patient, quiet and respectful of others. But when the abusive behavior gets intolerable, extraordinary measures will be taken. The perp asked for it. So he gets it.
this behavior should not be tolerated. massive civil fines.at least.
it’s really time to put a stop to this insanity justifying it by saying “they didn’t get the
help they needed”. I agree. next time it’s the banana boat to Brazil. or wherever….
@Jimbo “Ah the good old USA where the ignoratti are encouraged to behave in a truly classless fashion by a crazy rude cruel president. Make America Gross Again.”
Does it matter that this was in Brazil and the woman was speaking Portuguese, so presumably not American? I’m guessing you aren’t going to let the facts get in the way of a good story.
@Ricardo
The “Bolsonaristas” are the high iq high income people of that third world dump called Brazil. Without them it would look like Haiti if Lula’s voters didn’t have their handouts.
@George N Romey — No ‘pass’ here at all. She and the others were removed. Maybe it was appropriate under the circumstances, ultimately the crew’s decision, right? Maybe adding these folks to the ‘no fly list’ is a good idea for that airline, but also giving them an opportunity to appeal that decision if they feel they were wrongly designated. That’s an orderly process. However, the others shouting to ‘deport’ them is excessive. About as a excessive as kicking someone in the balls, per the original post. Bah!
@mainesail55 @Rogelio — Since you fellows brought up ‘taking shoes off on airplanes’ etiquette, yeah, there’s no hard-rule here; though, if you’re in the exit row, please keep ’em on, safety first, and for a shorter flight, probably a good idea, too, but, for long-haul, especially if you are up-front in a lie-flat seat, like what appears to be on this AA 789, naw, please feel free to take off your shoes once in the air, but keep your socks on, please, and use the slippers the airline provides. Don’t be like RFK, Jr., walking barefoot on an AA a321neo to the lav. Not cool. Yucko.
@David W Rodgers — What year did that happen? You seemed to suggest you were on the aircraft for that time, as-in stuck on-board, obviously not literally or legally a ‘hostage’ situation (you were being hyperbolic, I presume). The US DOT made changes to the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, requiring air carriers to implement tarmac delay contingency plans, so airlines usually domestic flight for more than 3 hours or an international flight for more than four hours, except for safety or security reasons, for example, I know Gary posted recently on two Delta flights originating overseas that got stuck overnight in Alabama due to severe weather at ATL and possibly a CPB staffing issue (some speculation there). All that said, I agree with you that there should be even better legislation, ideally passed by Congress, to ensure that when excessive delays are within the control of the airlines (say, for maintenance or staffing issues), that passengers are indeed compensated, directly, in-cash, like they do with EU 261 and Canada’s APPR, for the inconvenience. No, it doesn’t bankrupt airlines. No, private travel insurance isn’t good enough, as many of their terms limit coverage to delays in excess of 72 hours or more than half your trip. Read that fine-print, folks. We deserve better!
@Steve — Why not, sir. The water is warm. You’re always welcome here!
@DFWSteve — I’ll be clear, I’m not condoning whackos. I just think these calls to ban, deport, etc., are cruel and unusual. If you were wrongly accused of something, you’d want a chance to correct it. I’m reminded of the film, Due Date, where Zach Galifianakis’s character gets Robert Downey Jr.’s character kicked off a flight, hijinks ensues. (@L737, seen that one? It’s a good one.) A frustrating scene for those of us who want nothing more than to, as you said, be patient, quiet and respectful of others, which is absolutely my modus operandi, too, but, still, let’s be reason here. Due process should still matter. Lower the temps.
@Rick — It’s the internet. Donchu know, we’re all Americans on here, by default… Bah!
@jns — ‘Ugly’? Bah! They say, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ as-in, mostly subjective.
@JimC2 — We’re (mostly) ‘grown-ups’ here. What’s your actual point, sir?
I agree the woman is rude, aggressive and an entitled nutcase, but what about the guy yelling? He’s barefoot and yelling at the woman and flight crew. He should have been kicked off just for being shoeless and certainly for what he added to the difficult situation. I trust he was one of the people removed from the flight or at least I hope he was.
@1990 — Good movie! Shakespeare the famous pirate.
This Brazilian woman certainly stirred up a storm here — oh what a wonderful moment it was when the last Brazilian woman who was featured on a VFTW article here led to a 100% agreement amongst all of us!
That woman is Estonian/Swede Helen Jakobs speaking Portuguese. She was kicked off a flight in 2023. She’s back.
@Jimbo, São Paulo isn’t in the US, it’s in Brazil. The woman causing the issue is Portugese. Maybe know basic geography and have basic reading and comprehension skills before speaking.
Hopefully AA at the bare minimum Permanently Bans the B*tch from ever stepping foot on their aircraft in the future after they go after her legally for financial disruption to the flight and the required turnaround to the Gate. many of these people who are combative and argumentive………….tell them to go F themselves. No one is interested in WTF they think they are. She wanted to kick some one in the ballz…..I would make sure my size 11 shoe gets firms planted in her birth canal or up her ass as a reminder of her escapade. Many Latin Women are mouthy and unhinged when they do not get their way. Tired of the drama and theatrics.