Video: Passenger Dragged Off Flight For Spitting At Crew

Tarom did nothing wrong. Not their assigned seat, language barrier for an exit row, spitting.... this is 100% on that passenger.

The moment a lady starts spitting, she is no-longer a lady. Best she is referred to factually as "woman" or "female".

I’m waiting for the “racist” angle from you.

Lol, good for TAROM for removing these passengers. They did not follow the clear and well-known rules (which are basically the same for all airlines worldwide) plus, if the spitting did occur, commited an offence against the crew member.
This isn't even in the same field as the situation with Dr.Dao.
The story of a passenger below is ridiculous. How is security in Bucharest transit area even remotely related to this flight? What are "very bad" health conditions? If they are, indeed, that bad, then she definitely shouldn't have occupied an emergency exit seat.

It is hilarious to watch these entitled people simply taking the better seats without permission. The other week I was on a flight where I witnessed people first to board with "disabilities" and then wanting to sit in their exit row seats. (Fortunately, they were scoped out by pre-boarding team and pulled aside.)
Yes, at times, this travel life brings out the worst in us.

Besides not seating in the assigned seat, exit rows have language requirement for a reason, so they can comply in an emergency. They had the choice to move to their seats. In this case they "chose" to be dragged off the plane.

Leaving the guns unattended that's scary

I prefer the views of those actually on the plane : clearly their sympathies are with the woman and her family, even when it meant a delay. This kind of heavy-handed response is to be expected in some of those former USSR states.
As for the alleged spitting: evidently that allegation comes from the jack-booted security detail, ie to be treated with suspicion until confirmed ( or otherwise) by credible observers.

@paolo: Romania is not a former USSR state and currently part of the European Union.

If you dont follow regulations and refuse to comply with instructions then you are asking for it. Even if you spit in someones face or not. Not being able to follow instructions in an emergency exit row is possibly dangerous for fellow passengers!

Firstly the lady taking the video is an idiot, "having a child" doesn't make it such that you get to do whatever you want and in fact given he had a child you'd think the parents would want to set an example rather than act a fool and get dragged off the plane. She and the other guy needlessly inserted themselves into a situation they didn't have all the facts on so they could be offended on the internet for a day. Second, they should have just tased his dumb ass and put cuffs on him while he was incapacitated and had him off the plane in a jiffy.

The United story (and similar social-media-fueled incidents) has taught people - all over the world - that you can argue with flight crews and win, regardless of almost any extenuating circumstance. Fewer passengers are willing to comply with orders from crew now, because they know that they will either get the crew to capitulate, or get themselves into a physical confrontation, where there will be a pretty good chance they will be able to claim abuse from the airline that will go viral and lead to a settlement.

I just debated this with some friends earlier this week, and their unanimous conclusion (which i disagreed with) was that it should be totally illegal for airlines to ever move people from their seats once on board, and if necessary, "every plane should fly with 5-10 empty seats so nobody ever has to be bumped".

If there is a 'Spitting Passenger' I don't care how they are removed. It's necessary to remove them and they can agree to de plane or be forcibly removed. This behaviour is not acceptable. In fact it's disgusting and filthy. Just my opinion though.

OK, let's just say the conduct of the security team was very heavy-handed. Sadly, a typical Eastern European power trip ("because I said so"), and that's coming from someone who grew up and lives in the region.
That being said, if you're asked to leave the plane, you leave the plane. That's a done deal. You're not going to argue your way out of it, you're not going to win. You're only making it harder on yourself by resisting.

All this could have been avoided if they had just complied. After that is simply domino effect. Use of force, husband resisting, wife screaming and scaring her children. Then other parents butting in and yelling also scaring other children. I swear, that lady recording keeps saying "the children". Does having a children entitles to parents like like that? Gee. If the parents complied, no one would be crying, no security would have been called. If you don't complain, the obiviously they will call security or police to remove you by force, any person knows what is the next step. If a firm denial with explanation doesn't cut for them, even if you are right, just comply. Just like with police, comply and if they are wrong, then file a complaint or sue for wrongdoing. Non compliance is asking to be beat up or at worst, get shot. Not worth it.

Who knows what really happened. My main take away: of course a French lady doesn't speak anything else than French. No surprise here.

These videos are always ruined by some woman shrieking her head off.

Also, the kid looks like he's seen it all before. I bet his mother has form for sprogging at authority figures.

OK the story is not like that please check your source. The lady sat on her correct seat, no aggressive behavior was presented by the passengers. Basically the remaining passengers stood by the couple and are willing to testify that the couple did not do anything. The passenger will go to court and let's see what will happen.

Yet again Paolo wins dumbest comment of the day.

People don't like to see violence in connection with removal from an aircraft?

Simple. The onus was fully on the passengers. Do as they were told and there would have been no violence.

They don't own the airplane and are obligated to leave when the owner or their representatives order them to do so. The reason why doesn't matter.

When people refuse to do what they are legally obligated to do, violence can result. That's life. Deal with it.

A most unfortunate and ugly, chaotic, not well-managed, very risky, altercation between airline employees and a family of passengers who were completely uncooperative, became assaultive, and apparently there was a language barrier. With that, the only silver lining, perhaps, is it will be a great training tape for all airline employees going forward to review and discuss what not to do and what they could’ve done differently.
What is ironic is ultimately they had all the passengers deboard, which is what they should’ve done at the beginning because they wouldn’t have had to contend with a mob scene with many screaming loud and long, causing their children to cry and become very upset, understandably. Had a whole plane Been deboarded, it would’ve been a lot easier to get the man and his wife off the plane. When you get this kind of escalation just take everybody off the plane then you can control the situation better. A mob mentality developed with people practically rising up against Airlines personnel and security which is really stupid.
Everybody made it a lot worse than it had to be, including (especially) the passengers. This is not a participation sport. You see all of these parents with babies screaming that their children are so upset but they’re screaming! The parents did nothing to calm their children down; the main thing would’ve been to go to a far side of the airplane and try to calm your child down. instead they’re almost ensuring that their child is going to cry and scream because they’re screaming
Passengers: if Airlines staff is confronting a difficult passenger, the best thing you can do is stay in your seat and mind your own business 99% of the time. Usually the person should be off the plane because they’re drunk or belligerent or handsy or smell or any other kind of thing that would present a health/safety problem for you and me were we to be on that same plane fighting for this person‘s rights. Let them do their job. let them make the call. if it’s wrong, you have a bunch of witnesses there for a nice lawsuit.
And then there is the “journalist.“ With the camera. She has “every right“ to be filming. But I don’t think she was just filming. I think she was participating. It’s seem like that long blood curdling scream was coming from her. then someone threw some object (garbage?) towards the center of the action that seemed to come from her direction. so I don’t have great sympathy for her as an unbiased “I’m just filming” videographer. she was very much involved protesting and escalating and very much inflaming it. She should’ve been taken off the plane as far as I’m concerned.
If they had caught it early on and just instructed all passengers to Deboard, I think people would’ve done it , and then the only people onboard is that family, and that would be pretty easy to deal with at that point with not all these lookee loos who want to film everything. you don’t have to film if you have 20 witnesses seeing everything. It just raises the tension.
I think it was wise not to try to leave right away. Everybody needed to calm down.

On the other hand Tarom seats look quite comfortable in economy. Nice plush, thick padding with amazing headrests. I wonder what their J looks like?

Stop making excuses. Stop bleating idiotic platitudes like "travel brings out the worst in us all."

These people are assholes. Punch them out, drag them off the plane, toss them in jail and leave them there for a few days to think about it, and ban them from flying forever on any airline, period. Quit screwing around, and get on with the fecking flight. Stop encouraging the world population to be complete morons. Sheesh.

Those were Egyptians passengers and since I understand the language, here are some clarifications : they were angry because the culprit group was already seated in their designated seats after they were moved from the exit seats. In their view, the problem was solved but escalated by the security team. The lady was Moroccan and did not speak English accompanied by her Egyptian husband and son and there was a language barrier for sure. The passengers were also outraged that due to the screaming and the violence a couple of passengers passed out and no medical attention was given despite several requests. One was the mother of the young man seen addressing security from the front of the plane, informing them several times that he needed a doctor for his mother who suffers from cardiac disease and the other was a child. That the lady spat on the flight attendant is hard to believe and was a rumor non collaborated by anyone.
So both the airlines and the passengers who resisted change of seats are in the wrong. However, it is quite difficult to watch.

It doesn't inspire confidence in their security that they threatened the woman who wrote that account with security action for asking for water though.

This is 100 percent the passengers fault. I had to stop watching at the 45 second mark. The lady scream he has a child annoyed me. That should mean that if they had a child, whom by the way is in a critical learning stage at this point, they should have followed the orders laid by the law. They’re teaching this child rude behavior, and to disobey rules and laws. Their child should be taken away for negligence. Why are they resisting when they were clearly in the wrong. Speak English or the local language as is standard around the world for emergency seating. I applaud the airline. This is nothing like the United incident. The airline should give them a bill, like Jet2 gave a bill to that rude lady.

Instead of delaying the flight why not continue on without confrontation, then get them arrested when they disembark.

Yeah, by the time the border police arrived the passengers had already removed themselves from the exit row seats and were seated in their original seats at the back of the aircraft. So language barrier or not, they knew very well that they didn't belong there and had to move, which they did. We don't know whether the woman spat on the flight attendant or not but I find it _very_ unlikely that the captain would order someone off the plane simply for raising their voices during an argument.

The airline staff did nothing wrong, the border police were maybe too heavy-handed but they should have the right to remove someone from the aircraft. You can't just stand there for hours or days just waiting for someone to get the point that they won't be flying anywhere anytime soon.

If you've been ordered out for any reason, even in error, you remove yourself from the aircraft and sort it out later. Go ahead and sue the airline, but get your ass off the aircraft first.

oh, and just in case it wasn't clear, the staff in white shirts wrestling with the passengers in the second video are border police, since their sidearm badges ("Politia de frontiera") are clearly visible.

As soon as the other passengers intervened everyone should have been immediately offloaded.

The camera person violated international privacy laws and should be prosecuted.

If incidents like this result in offloading the passengers then perhaps in the future they will stop interfering and possibly will assist in deplaning the original offenders without further trauma.

Let's start being civil and this crap will stop!

Frankly, it I was the Captain, I would have told most of the idiots yelling and screaming (yes including the idiot that thinks his big bad ass aggressive behavior will help get his mom medical attention) to get off the plane as well. Refund their money. The remainder of the flight once they finally left must have been horrible listening to those in support of the spitting family babble about how they were wronged. Yes, the Captain and Crew do “get to act as god” on board. Listen and do as requested. It will keep you on board.

Wow. Yeah, totally agree with the majority of these comments. Thank God most people aren't agreeing with the passengers that were removed, which is usually the case in this 'human rights' obsessed world. That stupid lady filming should have been removed herself. She was just escalating the situation (along with the hysterical black lady afterwards). In fact, most of the adult passengers behaved deplorably. They were not only hindering the staff from doing their jobs, but upsetting everyone else too (making the environment even more unbearable). They wouldn't have had to worry about the 'safety' of the man being forcibly removed (and the violation of his freedom, lol) if he had just cooperated in the first place. Instead they were supporting and encouraging his behaviour! As other posters have already suggested, questions can be asked later and, if the actions of the staff were in fact unfair, a fair outcome could then be negotiated. Oh, and that man informing staff about his mother and 'requesting' assistance (as it was put by the poster who claims to be Egyptian himself)... no way. His attitude was completely belligerent. What was he expecting? To coerce and threaten the staff into doing his bidding? Sounds like typical (rich) Arab arrogance to me (apologies to Arabs who don't behave like this but I witness it all the time when traveling through the Middle East, and Morocco). In fact, the whole lot of them should have been fined for international travel violations (i.e. for endangering everyone's safety on an aircraft; which also happens to be a confined space which can't be easily exited). Bet they would be fun to be with in a real emergency (probably they'd be the types to try and get all their stuff out of the overhead lockers in an emergency landing where there's a goid chance of the plane exploding into flames, thereby preventing others from exiting, because 'that's their right). God help the human race if these specimens are an accurate cross-section of our intelligence and future potential...

It's easy for all of you to say the passengers were 100% in the wrong and that the people screaming and panicking are morons, and that the border officers did no wrong, but just imagine yourself on that plane, don't try and tell me you would've been completely calm and wouldn't have been at least slightly disturbed by the way the man was dragged off the plane. While I agree the passengers were wrong in refusing to deplane when they were legally obligated to do so, we as people watching from a computer screen shouldn't be so quick to judge the behavior of the other passengers, since seeing all that unfold in front of you would've been a very different experience than seeing it in video form. It's hard not to panic or be disturbed when someone's dragged so brutally and forcibly off a plane, right in front of you, regardless of whether or not they are in the wrong. I'm not saying the passengers didn't deserve to be taken off the plane, or that they shouldn't have been, but simply that empathy gets us all a lot farther in life.

Screw empathy. These idiots were clearly wrong, they were acting like entitled a-holes, and were asking for a good smack-down. So many idiots in the world now think they can and will get away with any outrageous behavior. It's time to start cracking some heads and make people learn there are consequences.

Drag 'em off the plane, without injuring them if you can, but if it has to be bloody, then so be it, their choice, their consequences. Toss them in jail and leave them there for a few days to learn lessons their mother should have taught them long ago. Zero sympathy.

First of all, this is not what happened and that is clearly stated in the video. So what actually happened is as follows:
1) the lady was seated in her assigned seat beside the exit. She doesn't speak English or Romanian so she was asked to change seats and she also had a hand bag that they thought it was a carry on so they asked her to put it in the storing area. She didn't want to as it had all the passports and money.
2) she changed her seat upon their request and they asked for her boarding pass.
3) they took her boarding pass and then came back for the passport.
4) they refused to give them the passports cause they wanted to keep it.
That's when the security came to take them.
5)the lady in the video was telling them that the child was there cause the child was terrified and worried about his dad.
6)the mother is diabetic and lost consciousness.
7) the father was taken away and didn't know where the mother was.
8) after 2 hours, they took him to the hospital to see his wife. She was still unconscious.
9) the flight passengers were saying that if they took the man that they will not board the flight as they were all on his behalf.

If the lady spitted as this article says, passengers wouldn't consider doing this. They would have stood on the crew's side.

@andy-well placed empathy yes. But my empathy is not all embracing. When someone acts like this family being removed, I have zero empathy.

I think this might have gone faster if security would have grabbed the kid first and told the parents to follow.

So what should always happen in these cases to expedite, is for the pilot to inform passengers of a mechanical issue and deplane everyone. Then if you have a problem passenger, just do not admit them back on the plane, the drama is kept in the airport and boarding passengers will not wait around to see why someone is not getting onto the boarding tunnel... simple

In this airplane as in a vessel rules are simple, you comply or go home, safety is most important and inappropriate behaviour is not accepted.
And to be honest if you are used to use wagon transportation go use a wagon not a plane.