An argument over a mobile phone charger led United Airlines to remove two of its passengers from one of its flights.
A fellow passenger on the undisclosed UA flight caught the scene on video and uploaded it to social media.
The passenger, who uses the username gammy_i_am_2021, narrated that a woman on standby for the flight was approved at the last minute and boarded the B737-900 aircraft late.
According to Gammy, the woman already had an “attitude” the moment she boarded the aircraft.
She was assigned a window seat but when she got to her row there were already two gentlemen seated in the aisle and middle seat.
“You guys are going to need to get up because my seat is at the window and I don’t feel comfortable passing you guys and I don’t want anybody touching me,” the woman apparently told the men.
A fair enough point but one that could have been delivered better. Nevertheless, the men got up and the woman was able to get to her window seat.
According to Gammy, the next thing she heard was the woman yelling, “Don’t think that your leg is going to be touching me, I don’t want you touching me, and you can move your charger there!”
The woman seemed to be unhappy about a phone charger belonging to the man in the middle seat being plugged into the seat console. Gammy said that the woman had snatched the man’s phone charger from where it was plugged and returned it to him.
This was the scene that followed:
A flight attendant had been called and was trying his best to de-escalate the situation. The middle seat man can be seen standing in the aisle, clutching his phone charger telling the flight attendant, “I was sitting there before she came in here.”
“I need to get this flight out, so we need to get our stuff together,” the flight attendant said, before giving both the man and the woman a chance to tell their side of the story.
The man said he was just in his seat when the woman came and unplugged his charger. While the woman was speaking, a passenger from the row behind them stood up and volunteered to switch seats with the woman.
“I have no problem with that arrangement,” the woman said.
“Yeah let’s keep going,” the volunteer said, seemingly just wanting to end the argument so that the flight could take off.
As she was packing her belongings to move, the woman continued the argument telling the flight attendant, “He called me a b*tch” to which the middle seat man replied, “Well you is [sic]”
And although she was already in her new seat, the woman continued her tirades towards the man in the middle seat. The flight attendant issued her a warning saying, “Ma’am, you’re 30 seconds from getting removed from this plane, I don’t want to hear it.”
“If I hear anything else, you’re coming off,” the flight attendant said.
The next video clip showed both the woman and the man packing their belongings as the flight attendant ushered them off the aircraft.
In the comments section, Gammy said that the man in the middle seat was eventually allowed back onto the flight.
Plenty of comments applauded the flight attendant for handling the situation quickly and professionally.