Another Airline Controversy

Another airline in America has come under controversy after a video surfaced of an American Airlines employee, that’s right not United Airlines, challenging a passenger to “c’mon, hit me” during a confrontation on Flight 591 from San Francisco, California to Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.

The confrontation between the AA employee and a male passenger, later revealed to be named Tony, was filmed and arose after another passenger, a mother, reportedly had her stroller violently snatched away from her by the employee in question, hitting her but missing her baby.

The incident was made public after the video was posted on the Facebook page of a fourth passenger, Surain Adyanthaya, but did not show the incident involving the stroller but did see the woman, visibly very upset and crying, her baby, and the male passenger coming to her defence, asking for the employee’s name directly and telling a flight attendant, “No, I’m not going to sit here and watch this stuff”.

In her post, Adyanthaya said, “OMG! AA flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her”.

In the video, you can see the accused employee come on board, after a final few passengers also board, and tell the male passenger, “Hit me. Come on, hit me!” and “You don’t know what the story is” when he said, “Hey, bud. You do that to me, and I’ll knock you flat” and “I don’t care what the story is. You almost hurt a baby”.

After the incident was made public, American Airlines released a statement saying they are “deeply sorry” for the incident and that the employee in question has been “removed from duty”.

During an interview with Tribune Media, a fifth passenger, Olivia Morgan, who witnessed the incident with the stroller, said, “The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby, with the second in a car seat on the ground next to her,

“He stormed by me with the stroller and I said something like, ‘What are you doing? You almost hit that baby!’ And he yelled at me to ‘stay out of it!’, just like he does in the video”.

This controversy comes les than two weeks after the United Airlines controversy were a passenger, Dr. David Dao, was forcibly removed from a flight after it had been overbooked.