NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — A video showing a passenger losing his temper over a crying baby on a Southwest Airlines flight has gone viral on TikTok.
Monique Pass, a passenger on the flight, told WJAR that it took off from Baltimore and was headed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “It was fine for a while until we were supposed to be landing,” Pass said. “We kept circling the air for a long time.”
The video included a screenshot indicating that the flight circled over the ocean near West Palm Beach, Florida, for more than an hour. In the four-minute video, the man can be heard yelling at flight attendants.
“That child has been crying for 40 minutes,” the man shouts at the start of the video. “Shut that f—— child up and I’ll calm down.” Flight attendants attempted to calm him down and repeatedly asked him to lower his voice.
“Why is the baby yelling?” he responded angrily.
As the man argued with flight attendants, a baby could be heard crying and screaming in the background. “I was panicking and having a panic attack because we’re stuck in the air,” Pass said. “We don’t know if we can land. We’re running out of gas. This little girl in front of me is screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs, and this guy is getting violent.”
Flight attendants continued to try to de-escalate the situation, saying, “You are yelling.” The passenger retorted, “So is the baby!”
Eventually, Pass said, the plane was diverted to Orlando, where passengers were asked to disembark. “They took him off the plane and ended up arresting him,” she added.
Southwest Airlines released a statement regarding the incident: “We do not have specific details of this event or third-party video to share. We commend our crew for exhibiting outstanding professionalism while handling a challenging situation, and we appreciate the patience of our other customers onboard who had to experience this unacceptable behavior.”
“It was a surreal feeling having so many emotions, and I don’t want to go through that again,” Pass said.
The incident highlights growing tensions among passengers during flights, especially since COVID-19. Mark Grabowski, another passenger on board, noted that people seem to have less patience these days. He described how the situation escalated when the unidentified passenger suddenly yelled at the crying baby.
“The last three years especially since COVID, it’s just been so much more on edge,” Grabowski said. “Everyone has had a little less patience these days.”
Grabowski praised the Southwest crew for their handling of the situation. He explained that bad weather had forced them into a holding pattern and that passengers were not allowed to move around. This created a tense atmosphere.
“[There was] bad weather. So, nobody was allowed to get up and move around,” Grabowski said. “A crying baby doesn’t help situations, but most people understand where this was coming from.”
The man who lost his temper was met by police upon landing but was not arrested. The incident has sparked widespread discussion about passenger behavior on flights.
Aviation analyst John Nance commented on the situation: “Even though our crews handle these things as diplomatically as they can, if you don’t sit down and close your mouth and stop doing whatever it is you are doing, you are going to be hauled off by police at the other end.”
This incident serves as a reminder of how stressful flying can be for everyone involved and highlights the importance of patience in crowded spaces like airplanes.
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