Regardless of who you supported in the recent presidential election, I think most people would agree that the behavior in the below video from a Delta flight this past Tuesday isn’t appropriate on a plane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nrv4jLhDd8
As you can see, the guy gets up, starts cussing, calling people on the plane “Hillary Bitches,” and saying that “Donald Trump is your president, every goddamn one of you.”
While the rant as such is hardly surprising for a passionate supporter of a candidate, the real question was why Delta didn’t do anything to interfere. This apparently happened before departure, so the guy should have been kicked off, or at a minimum, the crew should have had a serious talk with him to make sure a similar outburst didn’t happen in the sky. There were some heated political conversations on a recent United flight, so here’s how the captain of the flight handled that:
However, Delta didn’t do anything in this instance, which raised some questions. Well, yesterday Delta issued a statement regarding flight 248 from Atlanta to Allentown on November 22:
“We are sorry to our customers who experienced this disruption. We have followed up with the teams involved and all agree that this customer should not have been allowed to continue on the flight. Our responsibility for ensuring all customers feel safe and comfortable with Delta includes requiring civil behavior from everyone. The behavior we see in this video does not square with our training or culture and follow up will continue so we can better ensure our employees will know they will be fully supported to make the right decisions when these issues arise.”
Kudos to Delta for addressing this and apologizing, and for agreeing that the passenger crossed the line.
Do you think the passenger should have been kicked off the plane, given a warning, or was he completely within his rights?
Alabama is the capitol of Whitetrashistan.
What is it with all of the ALABAMA comments??????????? What has Alabama done to you?
"People like him, if you ignore him will just get more angry and escalate his actions to get you to stop ignoring him"
But ignoring him seems to be what caused him to eventually shut up and take a seat.
Trump supporter here. Or rather 20 + year Hillary hater...... I don't want to be in an airplane with anyone acting off. Mine your own business. Be courteous. Stay in your space unless nature calls or leg cramps.
They should have kicked him off. It was a disruption.
Of course they flight was going to Allentown/Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania AKA Alabama of the north.
People shouldn't just assume he was making a political statement. Crazy people do that all the time. You can't just assume he's not going to become a threat to passengers. People like him, if you ignore him will just get more angry and escalate his actions to get you to stop ignoring him. Delta should absolutely have done at least the minimum of evaluating his level of crazy.
If he had called them "Hillary bitches" in Arabic or threw in a "Allahu Akbar" after his President Trump comment, he would have been kicked off the plane for sure lol What a world we live in.
Too little too late...
The crew should have kicked him off... plain and simple. This behavior is completely out of line. He should be taking the bus instead. And no kudos to Delta as you say for "addressing" the issue. If I was the guy seated next to him, I would have gotten off... in fact, the moment DL refused to take him off the plane, the rest of the passengers should have gotten off the plane. That would...
The crew should have kicked him off... plain and simple. This behavior is completely out of line. He should be taking the bus instead. And no kudos to Delta as you say for "addressing" the issue. If I was the guy seated next to him, I would have gotten off... in fact, the moment DL refused to take him off the plane, the rest of the passengers should have gotten off the plane. That would have made a better statement.... Could you imagine 100+ passengers deplaining and customer service agents having to reroute everyone to their destinations? That's what I would like to see next time some a$$hole does something like this on a flight.
Idiot happens!
After watching the video it appears the passengers are wondering how such idiots exist. Truly incredible, but true. They do exist. I don't think anyone felt threatened, rather they felt sorry for the jerk. It was a brief chant. Let's not all get our panties in a twist by blaming whomever we don't like for this idiot.
As the rest of the world keeps saying "only in Americaas". Weirdos.
what if the Muslim guy did this, all passengers would kick him out....
well, this is why Trump got elected.
"While the rant as such is hardly surprising for a passionate supporter of a candidate”
Actually, it is very surprising.
However rants such as these (and associated violence to those who peacefully protested) happened so many times during the US presidential campaign that to many people, the lesson was "uncivilised behaviour/assault is normal." But that doesn't change the fact: This. Is. Not. Normal. It is surprising he did not start hitting anyone, considering his...
"While the rant as such is hardly surprising for a passionate supporter of a candidate”
Actually, it is very surprising.
However rants such as these (and associated violence to those who peacefully protested) happened so many times during the US presidential campaign that to many people, the lesson was "uncivilised behaviour/assault is normal." But that doesn't change the fact: This. Is. Not. Normal. It is surprising he did not start hitting anyone, considering his teacher.
It's likely we'll see more and more churlish, context-free aggression and outbursts, as the example is set at the top, and the best students for this are the least-educated amongst the US citizenry. They believe that Muslims will be banned, coal jobs will be brought back, women are objects to be assaulted, and the like. They also believe S. Korea and other countries should build nuclear weapons, and the USA should pull out of NATO. They are wholly unaware that funding for education will turn into vouchers for "school choice," and social security and medicare will turn into for-profit ventures, meaning those who pay into it will be forced to undertake risk that had never been contemplated when the programs were introduced. Medicaid will be reduced, but by how much nobody knows yet. The exact same people that created the president-elect were bamboozled into thinking "outsiders" would be brought in to help. Looking at the cabinet suggestions thus far, they are all complete and absolute insiders, with three (four?) billionaires thrown into the mix. The self-dealing is remarkable. All the suggested secretary of education has done is support defunding public schools; her father founded the "Family Research Council," an anti-gay hate group. Her brother? Eric Prince, of Blackwater fame/infamy.
Good luck USA. You may not have got the president you wanted, but you got the president you deserve.
The passenger also appears inebriated, and I would not have flown with him on the plane.
+1 UA 1K MM. Well-phrased.
Eh. Had they kicked them off, there'd be articles asking why and a whole different argument. A different group outraged. Groups suck.
Free speech is not an absolute right--for example, you can't yell "fire" in a movie theater. I don't think it's a reach in this situation to say that his speech was not protected under the 1st amendment. To that point, the president-elect doesn't seem to think the cast of Hamilton should be making remarks in the theater and after seeing that video and this video, there sure is a world of difference between the two.
Now if this man was brown or had a turban, he would have been shot or sent to Guantanamo
This is what you get when the rights of one person overrule the rights of all.
Or, in other words, better to upset a whole plane load of people, than upset one passenger who is behaving badly.
You get the behavior you tolerate.
No kudos for Delta. Apologizing (after the fact) after they refused to remove him before the flight shows a tacit approval for the sentiments of this loser.
I think there's general consensus that this passenger should not of flown and was in the wrong, the underlying question not asked is why didn't the Delta staff take action right then and there?
Beyond just a simple training failure, I believe what we're looking at is the trickle-down effect of strongman dictator. If you analyze the situation carefully, this is a good example of Delta staff not willing to challenge a Trump supporter...
I think there's general consensus that this passenger should not of flown and was in the wrong, the underlying question not asked is why didn't the Delta staff take action right then and there?
Beyond just a simple training failure, I believe what we're looking at is the trickle-down effect of strongman dictator. If you analyze the situation carefully, this is a good example of Delta staff not willing to challenge a Trump supporter or and not willing to risk the company's relationship with the president elect and creating an incident wherein the president elect would take them on and challenge them in Twitter.
Think about what president elect would've said against Delta airlines had one of his vocal supporter is been thrown off the flight. You already have a really good example with the president elect tweeting against the Hamilton actors based on an incident that is equal in dimension.
This is what life looks like in a dictatorship when individuals make decisions based on what might happen to them from above. Clear wrongs don't get righted, rights get trampled, and the wrong move ahead through various unfair and inefficient mechanisms
Delta should have followed their own policies they have in place to deal with this type of situation. Whatever those are, I think we all just want to see consistency no matter what the content of the speech, in addressing this type of behavior. It would be very difficult to believe that the flight attendants or other members of the crew did not know this was happening.
What an asshat.
Eddie, learn the Constitution. You don't have the right to free speech on an aircraft, the right to free speech protects you from government prosecution for things you say, not from a company punishing you for saying stupid shit onboard their aircraft. They can kick you off and it doesn't violate the Constitution.
I would have felt threatened and asked the crew to take action, otherwise I would've left the plane (assuming this really happened before departure).
You never know what might make a person like that flip out during a flight, hence my refusal to fly w/ someone as aggressive as him.
White. Insecure. Inbred inner Pennsylvanian douche.
Once you step out of the Main Line, Pennsylvania quickly becomes Alabama.
Loudly shouting "bitches" about anything when getting on an airplane should get you grounded. Add politics and political intimidation, and it's just doubly so.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
two words: White Privilege.
I'm not a Trump voter, but free speech rights don't end at the aircraft door. Was he over the top? Yes. Was he in any way threatening? No. This is an average Thursday on an NYC subway car. I'm not defending him, but the reflexive, "Kick him off," reaction is the same sort of authoritarianism that leads to Trump.
"While the rant as such is hardly surprising for a passionate supporter of a candidate"...? This has nothing to do with passion. And while it may not be surprising for a supporter of this candidate, it is sad and frightening and should have been handled by the crew.
This is the prime reason the whole world is laughing at us and more than concerned with the direction the most powerful country in the world is heading under Trump leadership.
Please do not feed the trolls.
Warn him.
Melissa, you sound like a fool.
Melissa's handler, calling someone retarded is really insensitive.
Hell, yes. Creep.
@Melissa - Are you mentally malnurished?
Melissa is mentally retarded. Please don't mind her
LOL.
This is what Barack Obama, ObamaCare, and socialism under Barry Hussein 'O has created. Airline devaluations has now lumped everyone in coach......to stay there for as long as Barack Hussein 'O is the Pres..
Frustrated maniac passenger was right though....he was only in the wrong sardine can.
Good idea to just kick him off. The issue could only escalate once airborne. If he's harassing passengers and refuses to stop, that's just wrong and he shouldn't fly.
Also, thank you Ben for refraining from making political comments during this cycle. It's so refreshing to just come here to the blog and just focus on aviation and the things many readers are passionate about!!
They should have kicked him out at 30,000 ft high ;)