A man was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for repeatedly berating gate agents over a flight delay beyond their control. Some things never change…
Man Pulled Off Southwest Airlines Flight After Refusing To Stop Yelling And Cursing At Gate Agents
This is not a recent incident. In fact, it takes me back to my childhood. I think one reason I enjoy writing about “pesky passengers” today is because I grew up watching Airline on A&E.
20 years ago we were in the height of the “reality TV” boom and A&E launched a series it simply called Airline, showcasing the daily happenings of passengers, ground workers, and cabin crew at Southwest Airlines.
My brother and I loved watching this show and it became weekly must-see TV at our house. In fact, two decades later I still vividly remember the cast of characters that made up the series.
Recently, the YouTube algorithm has been spamming my feed with classic clips from this program and yes, I’ve clicked on many of them. Folks, there’s nothing new under the sun.
Take a look at this example, where an entitled man does not handle his delayed flight well at Baltimore-Washington (BWI):
What amazes me is how patient Colleen is with this guy. He’s given chance after chance to calm down and yet he fails to do so. I do not think anyone would be given as many chances today (for better or for worse): Bill would have been offloaded with his ticket canceled after his first childish tirade.
That is the difference we see now…there has been such a proliferation of bad behavior that giving people the benefit of the doubt (oh, he’s just having a bad day and is understandably upset) is no longer all that common.
We should all learn from Bill’s example: treat gate agents kindly because flight delays are not their fault.
Finally, please don’t tell me these things were all staged. Let me go on believing Bill was actually a passenger! 😉
If airports allow such retards into the terminals , flights ought to be cancelled .
Airport entrances must have security checks to week out the retards and fake service dogs .
If Israel and military bases can do it , so can airports .
In various parts of Asia I have long been going through security checks to access common carrier flights over the decades. In many such cases, I consider the security bottlenecks created to access the airport buildings to increase the threat to civilian users of the airports. And in those cases, it’s a sign to me that the governments value property and public signaling more than they value lives of the general public using the airports to fly out.
Your use of the word “retard” is demeaning to those who have Down Syndrome and other disorders causing mental retardation challenges. To call a spoiled, uncouth, immature, unreasonable person a “retard” says a lot about you.
sorry but they ARE retards!
Stupid people!
I was forced to grow up with one, and the thing still is alive. I’ve earned the right to call them retards, Karen, and will do so until they day I die.
I grew up with one? And the THING is still alive?
What an ass.
2 weeks ago, I was at a gate where a man was yelling much louder than this man. He was swearing, wildly waving his hands. It went on for more than 2 minutes. That man and another unrelated man waiting in line started shouting at each other, the other man telling him to shut up. A security man came and talked with both of them. The yelling man continued for at least another minute. Lots of people were using their phones to capture it on video. The man stopped and was not kicked out.
He was yelling because the flight was canceled the night before and was rescheduled for that day as a different flight number, a Delta flight 9000-something.
Did you take a video for me?
I didn’t want to but then near the end, I decided to video a few seconds. By then, he wasn’t shouting as much and was almost done.
Delta paid for the hotel and reimbursed for meals and taxi. Delta divided the passengers into two groups, one to each hotel. One of the hotels did not have a shuttle. Delta also awarded 16,000 SkyMiles.
Is Airline streaming anywhere?
on YouTube
Bill was actually a passenger and reality TV is totally real!
Y E S! “I’m going to need those TPS reports- so if you could do that, that would be great”
20 years ago you weren’t a child. You were already an adult. Maybe you meant early adulthood?
20 years ago I was 17…I’d still call that a kid.
Yes, still a kid at 17.
Wow Matthew you’re 37? You look great for your age.
Sorry about that.
I thought I was responding to VFTW.
People do confuse us! 😉
He’s the older part of the echo pod that you guys seem to have going on. But he has more of that The Jerry Springer Show thing going on. 😀
This was MDW, not BWI in the video. 🙂
Colleen was still at MDW as a Customer Service Manager as of a few years ago. Some time ago, when I was at AirTran and the Southwest thing happened, I spent a week at MDW with the leadership team. I got to spend a couple of hours walking the airport with Colleen. She’s truly an outstanding person… she takes no crap from anybody (a good Chicagoan) but has a lot of compassion and deeply cares for others.
These things weren’t staged.. at least not to the knowledge of the staff.
I get the guy’s frustration but Colleen was also exhibiting the usual power-tripping school teacher lecture over and over again. How many times are you going to lecture and counsel and scold someone like they are a disobedient child? she’s repeating the same stupid mantra over and over and over again – Just listen and let him vent for a few seconds !!…. how about acknowledging his frustration and maybe telling him how weather alerts can be local or down the line, how it snowballs, dominoes or whatever – maybe a little more explanation on her part would have helped. Regardless of his rudeness even at the next gate, was it really necessary to offload him once he had a seat ? SWA – they’re so “friendly” and “all is love” but they handle problems like these in ways that are totally over-reactive. To me, this in fact, started the ball rolling where passengers were viewed as the enemy, and Miss power-tripping supervisor is going to now become a policewoman, I don’t care how “calm” she sounded. He was not altogether a lose cannon until he is seated, ready to go and she decides to pull him off.
cut rate airline, cut rate passengers
I don’t recall you ever mentioning a brother before. Hopefully you keep in touch. I know that my sister and I trying to arrange a family get-together with my brother has been shot down for decades. I’d hate for you to be in the same situation.
He’s mentioned it numerous times.
Round about his 17th where is the rain he belonged in handcuffs. Nobody has the right to act this simpke-minded. Especially not pathetic little Nancy boys concerned about getting home to feed their gerbils. Lifetime ban.
Next contestant?
What happened to Bill’s life.. moving forward 20 yrs?
That is MDW and not BWI
Bill was an idiot. A real jerk. BUT, once he got on the second flight, he never should have been taken off. (If this really happened.)
If it did happen, then it happened only because a reality TV camera was following them. On a normal day, she should have been happy he was calmly seated on the flight.
BUT, if she “felt unsafe”? Please. People need to learn the difference between the whine “I don’t feel safe” and what is is to ACTUALLY be unsafe. Not one person’s safety was at risk from that man being on the plane.
At first, she was right. At the end, she blew it.
I agree she should have been able to explain to him how weather impacts flights. Like maybe it wasn’t raining there but it was wherever the plane was coming from or going to. I get this guy should’ve been able to figure that out on his own but she still should’ve offered that info to him as an explanation. Also should’ve left him on plane if he was already sitting and behaving. Her pulling him off that plane is for sure all about her power tripping. If she says he was acting like a child that was perfect cause she definitely wanted to act like his mom!! He was calm already but she made him get off plane cause “SHE SAID SO THATS WHY” the entire episode must’ve not played here as I didn’t hear him curse or scream which definitely, yes I get is unacceptable but geez he’s on the plane just let the guy go and be happy he’s on his way. I don’t know these gate agents but I’ve certainly seen quite a few that truly have their own power tripping attitude which should also be unacceptable!
Over the last few weeks I have witnessed hostile encounters in several languages because of delays in OTP, SOF, MAN, and BEG, but I was impressed with the calm gate agents and passengers in ZAG. Hopefully today’s flight departing TIA is calm, what with the Crowdstrike IT outages and all. Thankfully, it is a direct flight and I have several days before heading on to ZRH.
It seems we should require a new high school class that teaches civility, respect, tolerance and simply how to properly live as a member of society.