A Delta Airlines Pilot was briefly suspended after he was seen on video striking a passenger. According to the airline officials, a camera that captured the incident shows that he clearly struck the traveler who was involved in a verbal altercation with another person. However, the action of the pilot at the Atlanta International Airport de-escalated a physical fight between the two individuals.
Pilot's quick action ends quarrel between passengers
The recorded video did not show precisely when the incident happened as stated by Brian Kruse, the spokesperson for Delta Airlines.
Kruse told Patch in an interview that the video was sent to the airline carrier about a week ago and subsequently the pilot was expelled until the company could further investigate the incident.
The video posted by TMZ on Saturday indicated that the two travelers had started arguing and was about to get in a physical squabble when the pilot stepped in and told them to quit. However, when that did not happen, he could be seen spinning the passenger around then striking her.
Delta Airlines lifts pilot's suspension
The incident between the two adults occurred after they had deplaned and was walking through the passageway to exit the airport. Delta said based on what they saw on the video, the pilot’s suspension was lifted so that he could resume his duty with the airline.
The senior official for Delta said these occurrences rarely happened where a pilot had to break up a fight between the passengers.
Kruse said it is the airline's duty to investigate all reported incidents that involved their employees thoroughly. Additionally, he said, especially with the recent incident where a passenger was aggressively removed off an airline because of an overbooking issue.
The highly publicized incident on the United Airlines flight left the passenger bleeding from his mouth.
According to the video broadcasted by several media houses Dr. David Dao, declined to surrender his seat after the airline asked him to get off and wait for another flight because they had mistakenly booked too many passengers.
Security members then approached the doctor, who was traveling with his wife and was removed by force. United Airlines have since issued an apology and had reached a settlement with the doctor's legal team. However, the amount of money paid was not revealed since both parties agreed to a secret settlement.