Video: Flight Attendants Fight In Jeddah Departure Lounge Before Passengers Board Boeing 777—Both Suspended

Two Pakistan International Airlines flight attendants slated to work a Boeing 777 trip on PK840 from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Multan, Pakistan on December 23 got into a fight in the departure lounge prior to boarding. What started as a heated exchange of words escalated into a scuffle, though eventually an airline official intervened and separated them.

In video of the incident, two women wearing the airline’s cabin crew uniform are standing face-to-face. A mustached man in a dark suit stands nearby, trying to mediate between them.

The flight attendant on the left steps in. Her hands go up and they start grabbing at each other’s hands. The tussle intensifies as both women’s arms lock together.

At least one additional person (including a seated bystander in a green headscarf) appears to help keep them apart. They’re momentarily more separated, standing again with the mediator between them, but they re-engage. Then they’re pulled farther apart.

There’s discussion of ‘work issues’ triggering the dispute, and swearing and abusive language between them.

The flight ultimately departed 2 hours and 19 minutes late. Both flight attendants were suspended.

Pakistan International Airlines is best known for sacrificing a goat for safety and flying with more passengers than seats (and making customers stand for 1700 miles). The airline’s former CEO was actually detained as a result of his efforts to provide good seats and service by wet leasing aircraft from SriLankan.

Usually their flight attendants are just in the news for vanishing as soon as they’re off the Toronto flight, because they don’t want to return to Pakistan.

It’s not only Spirit Airlines, and not only U.S. flights, where civility is on the decline.