Pandemonium In Premium Economy: British Airways Flight To Austin Delayed By MAGA Hat Fisticuffs

British Airways flight 191 from London Heathrow to Austin departed two hours late on Monday when passengers got into a fight because one of them was wearing a MAGA hat.

Both passengers were seated in premium economy. One woman demand that the other remove her pro-Trump hat. When she was refused, the pair began fighting. This apparently happened at first in the gate area and continued in the cabin after boarding. Flight attendants reported this to the captain who called authorities. The women were not immediately arrested, but they were not permitted to fly.

According to police,

Shortly after 12.45pm on Monday, 28 October, police at Heathrow were made aware of an incident involving two women waiting to board a plane in Terminal 5. A woman in her 40s and a woman in her 60s made counter allegations of affray. Enquiries are ongoing.

British Airways, for their part, “apologised to our customers for the delay and got them on the way as quickly as possible.”

It’s a little weird this happened on the Austin flight. There aren’t a lot of Trump supporters here. Austin went for Bernie in the Democratic primaries in 2016 and 2020. I can see the woman objecting to the hat being triggered – she’s probably never seen one in person before.

Over the summer, one woman got a drink in American Airlines first class and somehow thinks she got less-than-usual service because of her MAGA hat. She must not fly American very often. On United a man in a MAGA hat was removed from the aircraft, but in his case it was for self-upgrading. And here’s a woman in a MAGA hat during the pandemic refusing to wear a mask and using a racial epithet on Frontier.

@alexbarkley4

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♬ original sound – Alex Barkley

This election is incredibly close, and I don’t know anyone who actually knows what will happen to any degree of certainty. In 2016 I was confident that Hillary Clinton would win on the theory that Trump would underperform Mitt Romney with women and minorities, and you don’t become President by underperforming Mitt Romney. I was wrong. In 2020 things were closer than I expected, but went the way that I expected.

Now? Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are just too close to be certain, and North Carolina is in play. One likely scenario is that Pennsylvania is the tipping point, and Kamala Harris will regret passing on that state’s governor as her VP nominee because the left wing of her party wouldn’t accept him as a Jew and supporter of Israel. But she could just as easily run the table on swing states.

Shortly after the 2016 election, when President Trump was first elected, a United pilot made a pre-departure announcement that passengers had to keep politics off the plane. The whole cabin cheered. No matter what happens on Tuesday, I think we’ll all be grateful to stop getting candidate and fundraising texts.

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. People shouldn’t be harassed for wearing clothes that advertise their political affiliation, but advertising your political affiliation is a weird thing to do.

  2. Recently saw a person wearing a “Make Israel Palestine Again” hat on the plane. Classy!

  3. Interesting that you frame a woman attacked for wearing a maga hat as somehow at fault. First amendment rights are not surrendered on an airplane.
    Leftists are the true fascists.

  4. Those women were the true ugly Americans, both of them. British Airways should have not let either one board after they got into an argument in the terminal that was being settled with fists.

  5. My understanding is that Harris picked Waltz because during his interview with her he asked, “What can I do to help you?” and said he did not want to be president. Shapiro on the other hand, allegedly said something like, “What will be my powers in office?”. And there’s the difference. I don’t know the ins and outs of all this but here in Minnesota Tim Waltz has been an excellent governor who really cares about all the state’s people. Has he made mistakes? Sure, but he is a very decent and normal person, something which Harris undoubtedly picked up on.

  6. Mr Mantis,

    The way the article reads they were in London which is the UK, not the US. They were on a British Airline. I’m not sure there are any “first amendment rights” in play.

    You might want to educate us (and yourself) before pointing fingers.

  7. A lesson obviously missed in many circles. You have every right to your opinion as to who you support. You have absolutely no right to insist that I agree with you or conform to your wishes. When will people understand that little fact.

  8. Trash is trash regardless of your candidate of choice
    And you do nothing when you display bad behavior to improve perception of your preferred party.You just display ignorance and how obnoxious you are as a human being

  9. Both political parties dislike each other. The big difference is the Democrat Party is violent and, I believe, immature. They want to control and if they can’t they will work to destroy the other. Now I ask, sincerely, what has VP Harris and the Democrat Party accomplished that earns them a vote and to remain in power? I don’t expect a logical answer, but I do have an open mind.

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