An entitled passenger boldly told an American Airlines flight attendant to “shut up” while the employee was reading pre-flight safety instructions on a Texas-bound flight earlier this week and was promptly kicked off the plane.
Viral video posted to Instagram showed the woman telling the flight attendant “she should shut up” as safety protocols were read over the plane’s public address system on a flight from Costa Rica to Dallas Tuesday.
The female flight attendant then approached the rude traveler and immediately pushed back, the footage taken by a fellow passenger shows.
“Do you want to get off the plane? Because I don’t feel comfortable with you if you’re not going to follow instructions,” the flight attendant stated while directing her peers to turn off the address system.
The passenger played dumb, saying, “I can’t hear,” when the flight attendant began her inquisition.
“You’re not on my list as someone who can’t hear. So I’m going to ask the pilot to remove you because you’re not complying,” the crewmember fired back, adding, “You know what you did right?”
The flight attendant then calls out the boorish passenger for not turning off her phone, according to the footage.
The clip cuts out after the traveler agrees to comply with orders, but then picks up again with her claiming to be harassed by the airline employee.
The woman was escorted from the plane, according to the footage and her seatmate, who filmed and posted the video with the caption: “empty middle seat is a win for me.”
Her seatmate, Jay Crenshaw, said he felt empathy for the flight attendant who “caught a stray” — but at the same time, also felt for the passenger who seemed to know she was out of line.
“She was having a bad morning and was obviously disturbed or irritated about something she was on the phone talking about,” Crenshaw told The Post.
“The flight attendant might’ve caught a stray. I think the passenger knows she was wrong,” he said. “She mentioned that she also lost her phone and had to borrow one.”
“I’m definitely not excusing her behavior [but] we’ve all had bad days and have said bad things because of it, but we weren’t filmed,” Crenshaw said.
“I hope people can remember this and give her a bit of grace.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Airline aggravations have made headlines in recent weeks.
A 50-year-old New Zealand woman was booted from a flight after drunkenly cursing at staff and dancing in the aisle while the aircraft was taxiing.
Another drunk passenger on a flight from the UK to Dubai was restrained for several hours after he called a flight attendant a “stupid bitch.”
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