Woman Fakes Attack While Deplaning Southwest Airlines Flight

Here’s an inflight disturbance story that doesn’t involve masks, for once. A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight is getting quite a bit of attention on Reddit over her refusal to get off the plane.

Passenger refuses to get off Southwest Airlines flight

This incident involves a passenger who refused to get off a Southwest Airlines flight. No, to be clear, she wasn’t being kicked off the plane, she was just being asked to deplane at the end of the flight. I’ve certainly had some flights that I wish didn’t end (like when I flew the Etihad Residence), but I’m not sure that’s what was going on here…

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Nowadays airlines encourage passengers to deplane one row at a time to minimize the amount of crowding in the aisle. In a 36 second video, a passenger can be seen staying seated when it’s her turn to deplane.

We don’t know what happened prior to what we see, but the video starts with another passenger who is behind her saying the following, while trying to deplane:

“Are you going to get off the aircraft, or are you going to sit there and scream?”

Then another passenger who is also seated behind her chimes in:

“I’ve gotta pee, I’ve gotta get off of here.”

Since the problematic passenger doesn’t respond, the woman who has to go to the bathroom just walks past her, at which point the passenger starts screaming at the top of her lungs as if she’s being attacked.

At this point a flight attendant approaches the problematic passenger, and the conversation goes as follows (I’m trying hard to ignore the fact that the flight attendant lowers her mask to speak to the passenger):

Flight attendant: “I’m watching you attack her.”
Passenger: “You go outta here.”
Flight attendant: “Excuse me, I work here, ma’am.”

Here’s a video, should you want to watch it:

Karen refusing to get off plane pretends to be attacked by black woman shuffling by.
byu/CBoardingGroup inTravelFreakout

Will Southwest Airlines ban this passenger?

We don’t know what happened prior to what we see above, but regardless, faking that you’re being attacked because someone else is trying to get off the plane after the plane has arrived at the gate is outrageous. There’s simply no justification for acting that way. It also seems like that may not have been her first time screaming on that plane, since a passenger asks if she’s just going to “sit there and scream” prior to the screaming that we see.

While Southwest Airlines has banned quite a few passengers over mask compliance, I’m not sure if the airline is banning rude passengers, as Delta is. As far as I’m concerned this woman shouldn’t be allowed to fly Southwest anymore.

One of the challenges with these kinds of airplane stories is that it can sometimes be tough to figure out whether someone has legitimate mental issues, or is just a jerk. If someone is just having a freakout and not trying to harm others, then I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

However, if someone literally starts screaming as if they’re being attacked while being seemingly stubborn, I do think some accountability is appropriate. Take “do you know who I am” Amex Platinum Karen, for example, who refuses to wear a mask and refuses to provide her ID when buying alcohol at a drugstore because she has an Amex Platinum (note that there’s some bad language in the video):

Does she have a few screws loose? Probably. Should she be held accountable for acting this way? Definitely.

Bottom line

For unknown reasons, a passenger didn’t want to get off a Southwest flight. Not only that, but she didn’t want others seated behind her to get off the plane either. So when a passenger behind her finally decided to deplane, this woman screamed as if she was being attacked.

(Tip of the hat to C Boarding Group)