A Frontier Airlines passenger refused to comply with exit row instructions from a cabin crew member forcing everyone on the flight to deboard.
In a viral TikTok posted on 9 May, travel blogger Tia (@travelwithtia23) shared with viewers how an unidentified woman in glasses argued with airline employees. Meanwhile, her fellow passengers were pleading with her to deboard the plane for all of their sakes.
“This lady right here, when she first got on the plane and acknowledged the exit row, she said, ‘Oh, I’m not going to save anybody. If something happens, I’m going to save myself,’” Tia explained. “That was her attitude throughout the seating process. And I already knew something was about to pop off when she had that attitude.”
The video shows the woman arguing with a female flight attendant, gesturing to another flight attendant: “Yeah, she talking to me - what is the problem?”
”Cause she don’t wanna tell us her name?” she interrupted the airline worker as she set down her drink on the aircraft floor. The flight attendant attempted to finish her sentence, “If it’s gonna be a problem-”
“A problem? What’s the problem?’ the woman interrupted as the flight attendant continued to try to relay the exit row instructions mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “We ain’t got no problem with that. We understand we gotta help people get off the plane and help Betty White if something happens.”
“What’s the problem? We agreed,” she repeated as passengers began to laugh in the background and the flight attendant walked away. “You wasting your breath. Is they gonna take this plane off the ground?”
The woman then set her phone on the ground female passenger and picked up a snack before turning to the other flight attendant, saying: “Get out my damn face.”
“Did you ask her to agree? You ain’t doing your job,’ she continued as the flight attendant employee put her hands in front of the passenger’s face. The passenger recoiled and opened up her snack. “You better get out my face is what you need to do, Betty.”
After they exchanged a few more words, the flight attendant walked away, but as she began to eat her snack another employee came to her to deliver a piece of paper. Immediately, the passenger became upset, with the employee attempting to talk her down. The employee said, “They said you were not listening-”
The woman tried to plead her case, saying that people witnessed her agreeing with the instructions, but the airline employee waved over another flight attendant.
“We all agreed. Everybody can witness that,” the woman saying that she was flying to take care of her 4-year-old grandson while his mother was on vacation. “And my grandson is getting off, out of school, and his mama took a flight to Mexico, and I’m not getting off this plane.”
The captain then got involved, announcing to the passengers: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be underway here shortly, we gotta take care of this issue. Law enforcement will be arriving.”
She was eventually escorted off the plane by police officers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, but unfortunately, all passengers had to deboard with her.
The unidentified woman defied the FAA requirement that says that passengers seated in an exit row must not only read instructions but also verbally confirm that they will carry out the physical duties of assisting others in case of an emergency.
