British Airways Flight Delayed Over MAGA Hat Brawl

A transatlantic British Airways flight was delayed after two passengers got into an altercation over a political hat, and it didn’t end well for anyone.

I wasn’t going to cover this, since I don’t usually like these kinds of clickbait stories that just divide us and bring out the lowest common denominator. However, D3kingg posed the question of whether I have “the balls” to report on this, so as someone who is deeply concerned about my perceived masculinity, here you go… 😉

Women get into fight over Trump hat on British Airways

This incident happened on Monday, October 28, 2024, and involves British Airways flight BA191, scheduled to fly from London (LHR) to Austin (AUS) with an Airbus A350-1000. It involves two women who didn’t know one another prior to the incident, with the women being in their 40s and 60s. One of the women was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, which is a popular red hat worn by some vocal Trump supporters.

The disagreement apparently started in the gate area, when one woman asked the other woman to take off her MAGA hat, though she refused. The disagreement continued onboard the aircraft, as both women were seated in premium economy.

The situation between the two passengers got so bad that the woman who was offended by the other traveler’s hat ended up getting physical with the woman wearing the MAGA hat, and then punches were exchanged between both travelers.

At that point, around 12:45PM, the crew called police for assistance. The travelers both ended up being removed from the flight. No arrests were made, though both women claim affray against one another, and police continue to investigate the incident.

The flight was initially supposed to depart at 12:10PM, but the flight ended up pushing back at 2:11PM, and taking off at 2:35PM, quite a bit behind schedule.

My take on this British Airways MAGA hat incident

What’s my take on this incident? First of all, I’ve gotta be honest, I’m a bit surprised that we haven’t seen more of these incidents in recent times, given how soon the election is, and how divided the country is, with the two sides living in completely different realities. Regardless of my own political beliefs, this is pretty straightforward:

• You should never get into a confrontation with another passenger; if you have a concern, you should respectfully bring it to the attention of an airline employee
• Even beyond that, it’s totally unacceptable to assault someone (physically or verbally) because you disagree with them

If this situation happened as presented, and the one woman punched the passenger with a MAGA hat on, then shame on her. This has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with being a decent person.

Now, I’ve reviewed British Airways’ contract of carriage regarding dress code and clothing, and I don’t actually see anything that would be relevant, which would prevent someone from wearing a controversial hat.

I think this is a bit trickier to handle for airlines that have policies whereby they ban “offensive clothing,” since that’s very open ended, and we’ve long seen airlines struggle with where to draw the line here.

The best thing you can do if you disagree with someone — especially if they’re wearing something that you feel is trying to trigger other people — is to ignore them. People wear “bold” things because they want attention, so by engaging with them, you’re typically giving them what they want.

Bottom line

A British Airways flight was delayed after two passengers got into a fight over a MAGA hat. One passenger was offended by another passenger’s hat and asked her to remove it. She refused, and this ended up leading to a physical altercation, and the flight was delayed by around two hours.

This is pretty straightforward — you should never get in a fight with another passenger on an aircraft. If you have a concern, bring it to the attention of an airline employee, and let them deal with it (if there’s anything that can be done).