A Sun Country flight attendant is facing assault charges and a lawsuit, over an incident that happened on a flight earlier this month, after people were kicked off a flight. It’s common to see flight attendants kick people off planes with fairly limited repercussions, so at least the assault accountability is good.
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Sun Country flight attendant accused of racism & assault
Earlier this month, a social media post went viral, regarding an incident that happened on August 3, 2026, on Sun Country flight 193 from Minneapolis (MSP) to Baltimore (BWI). A girls flag football team was traveling from the Junior Olympics in Iowa as a group that was supposed to include 19 people.
Two of the booked travelers didn’t make it, so they ended up being a group of 17 (everyone in the group were Black — an important detail, given what’s being claimed). During boarding, one of the travelers ended up sitting in one of the seats of the passengers who didn’t make it, figuring the seats had been paid for, and wouldn’t be occupied by anyone else.
Before we get deeper into this, let me point out that while this is a logical conclusion to draw, airlines do cancel tickets if you don’t show up, and other people can be assigned those seats, so that’s not quite how it works. But that’s an honest mistake, and seems easy enough to correct, and like it shouldn’t escalate.
Anyway, around the end of boarding, one of the flight attendants told this traveler that she needed to move to her assigned seat, and “her tone was condescending, disrespectful, and unnecessary.” The woman claims she immediately moved, though the flight attendant continued to berate the entire group, stating “you people need to learn to sit in your assigned seats.”
The traveler points out how being spoken to that way “was both racist and intentional,” and “she repeated it several times, loudly.” The passenger apologized again about the confusion, though the flight attendant “continued with the verbal assault and threatened to have [her] removed from the flight.” At that point, the woman’s father, sitting adjacent to her, asked the flight attendant not to speak in that manner.
She reportedly replied that she “could do whatever she wanted,” and decided to remove the woman and her father from the plane. Another flight attendant reportedly came up to them at this point, apologizing, and claiming the other flight attendant’s actions were unprovoked and unacceptable.
That second flight attendant reportedly claimed they wouldn’t be removed from the flight, only for the other flight attendant to return a short while later with security, to have the two removed. They were told if they didn’t voluntarily move within a minute, they would be removed and possibly detained.
The pair ended up being removed from the flight. Other passengers who remained on the plane reported that they heard the other flight attendant say that the flight attendant who was the center of the whole incident didn’t “want to come back here,” referring to where the group was sitting, to provide service.
Things also escalated once the plane landed. A member of the group tried to get a video of the flight attendant in question while walking off the plane, and the flight attendant ended up attempting to swat the phone out of the passenger’s hand.
The flight attendant ended up being charged with assault for attempting to do that. On top of that, the group is filing a civil rights lawsuit over the altercation, against the flight attendant and the airline.
I don’t know what will come of this, but I’m all for accountability
All too often, we see flight attendants kick passengers off flights on questionable grounds, with no real repercussions. Obviously I wasn’t there, so I can’t say with certainty what happened.
What I can say is that if the flight attendant really did pull a “you people,” that’s disgusting. I suppose some would make the argument that this isn’t inherently racist, though at at an absolute minimum, it’s terrible customer service, and shows a very bad attitude.
Furthermore, while recording employees without their consent violates rules at virtually all airlines, that doesn’t make it illegal. It certainly doesn’t justify attempting to swat a phone out of someone’s hand. This flight attendant sounds absolutely horrible, plain and simple.
I’m not sure how much success this will have as a civil rights lawsuit, but I’m all for a court hearing the case.
Bottom line
A Sun Country flight attendant was charged with assault, after attempting to swat the phone out of a passenger’s hand, while she was recording the crew upon deplaning. This came after two other people in the group were kicked off the flight, as an enraged flight attendant reportedly referred to a group of Black travelers as “you people” on multiple occasions.
I’m not sure how far this lawsuit will go, but if the facts are even remotely close to how they’re presented, this flight attendant sounds pretty awful.
What do you make of these Sun Country assault charges, plus the lawsuit?
“You people” could very well just have been her referring to the group, but of course, they would always claim every single negative thing they encounter to be racism. This case is gonna get thrown out lol
….crickets….
Rude flight attendant? Very possible and likely true. Racist? I don't buy it. Plenty of nasty flight attendants out there that come off a rude and nasty manner to all flyers.
@ George Romey -- I respect your opinion, but I'm curious, when you hear someone refer to a group of people on a plane as "you people," how do you interpret that as not being a charged statement? What else could it refer to other than "people like you?"