American Airlines almost joined United Airlines in the placing for worst U.S. airline after video footage captured a woman being struck and then thrown off a plane on Friday night. A flight attendant on the plane allegedly struck her with her own baby’s stroller. The plane was still at the gate at San Francisco’s airport when it happened. The woman can be seen on a video crying after the incident – captured by a fellow passenger, Surain Adyanthaya and posted on Facebook. That video is included below.
Flight attendant takes stroller from female passenger, then strikes her
As reported by the New York Post, the Facebook video was captioned by Adyanthaya to say that the American Airlines flight attendant had violently taken a Baby Stroller away from a female passenger, traveling with her baby on the flight. It continued by saying the flight crew member then struck the passenger with the stroller, barely missing her baby. Adyanthaya added that the flight attendant then tried to get into a fight with another passenger, who had stood up for the woman.
In the video, the flight attendant can be seen boarding the American Airlines aircraft and talking to the man who had stood up for the female passenger.
The man said to the flight crew member that if he did that to him, he would knock him flat, adding that he had almost hurt a baby. The flight attendant responded by telling the man to “stay out of it” and that he didn’t know what was going on.
Following the altercation, the woman and her children were escorted off the American Airlines plane, but the flight attendant in question was allowed to board the flight.
Passenger upgraded to first class on another American Airlines flight
As reported by USA Today, after the incident, the Facebook video soon went viral and has received more than one million views at the time of writing. After this American Airlines issued a press statement to say that what they saw on that video does not reflect the airline’s values or how they care for their customers.
The airline then went on to upgrade the woman to first class on another flight from San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth. The press statement continued by saying the flight attendant in question had been “removed from duty.”
Airlines making the news for overbooking flights
The latest incident comes in the wake of a similar, violent confrontation on a United Airlines plane in Chicago on April 9, where airline security staff physically dragged Dr. David Dao off the plane. In that incident, United had overbooked the flight and needed four seats for the airline’s own employees. They requested that Dao give up his seat but the doctor had to see patients in Louisville the next day and refused to deplane.
The doctor was left bloody and injured after the incident.
Another recent scandal hit Air Canada after employees told a woman a flight was overbooked and that she could not board. This led to the woman missing out on her dream $10,000 Galapagos cruise, despite the fact she had booked two months in advance and had checked in with no problems.
