Another day, another fight at Miami International Airport. Welcome to the next chapter of our Miami Airport Flight Club Tales. This time, passengers did not even wait to get past security in order to start fighting.
Miami Fight Club, Round 3: Fight Breaks Out At American Airlines Check-In Desk
The incident took place at the American Airlines check-in counter. It isn’t clear what started the brawl, but viral video shows a pair of young men locked in mortal combat, taking the fight at one point even behind the (deserted) check-in counter.
The companion of one of the men tries to break up the fight and seems to succeed, though after about 25 seconds the two men just give up, put up their hands, and walk away. The video cuts off, but could it be that we missed a beautiful gesture of peacemaking?
Meanwhile at MIA… #BecauseMiami pic.twitter.com/6IgdPJAkOO
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) June 4, 2021
It’s a rough time to fly: airport concessions remain closed, onboard service remains cut, and planes are full once again. Prices have recently spiked and even if you are flying up front, amenities remains at a minimum. And of course the mask mandate. With that subtext, it is no wonder we are seeing such an increase in the number of disturbances at airports and onboard.
And this fight isn’t nearly as bad as the last one I covered at MIA.
CONCLUSION
In all seriousness, this is a difficult time to fly. Stay safe out there and the best way to make peace is to put your pride aside and run the opposite direction if you encounter an angry or aggressive passenger. I know, easier said than done. But who wins in a fight like this? No one…
(H/T: View From The Wing)
Maybe it’s just me but closed concessions and onboard service cuts shouldn’t be the reason for increased number of airport brawls. I think we’re witnessing a different kind of societal change inspired by social media rage and economic strife and inequality.
I disagree with the statement that “ With that subtext, it is no wonder we are seeing such an increase in the number of disturbances at airports and onboard.” I do not think that crowded flights and a lack of amenities in business class is justification for violence.
It’s not justification at all. But the present reality of travel, including the masks, contributes to this bad environment. Ultimately, however, there is no excuse for failing to exercise self-control and personal responsibility.
Wakanda forever
Yes, closed airport concessions are a perfectly valid excuse for fighting. If only they’d thought to pack a sandwich they wouldn’t have needed to resort to violence.
I believe that this is an evolution precipitated by the Airlines and Airports themselves who have turned travel into a high-stress un-enjoyable activity. Add to this Covid, the varying rules, people’s fears and insecurities, so with some this pressure causes a blow-out situation. But instead of airlines & airports looking in the mirror and asking “what did we do to cause this?” they are treating the symptoms, not the disease. In essence, the airlines put all the onus on the Customer to do all the work that Agents used to do. Now, from the moment you look to book, you need a Lawyer, Financial Advisor, Health Advisor and a keen eye for hidden contractual and online trickery so to delve your way the the minefield of rules, regulations and charges. Covid makes this worse still. Yes Booze doesn’t help, but the real problem is how the Infrastructure Operators thought they could cut costs whilst fleecing their Customers through self-service digital, mobile printing, multiple documents and all the Ancillaries there to trip you up on your Journey. Airlines sold their soul to Digital and now they are paying the price. Will they listen? Highly unlikely.
@M Jones,
Why would airlines “be the cause of this” ? …. I retract, in some ways you’re right – where passengers are now expected to do everything practically without any other human help. However, people who act up or react like this obviously go much further back then the moment they bought an airline ticket or appeared at a check-in counter or gate. When there are no parents, no discipline and every reaction to things in everyday life become a violent, knee-jerk response because they’ve been coddled by social services, schools and everything else but PARENTS (as in two), what can you expect. Millions of misfits now among us; this will be the norm……. like riding the subway.
A fight isn’t brutal if someone isn’t getting knocked out. Solid scrap, but nothing crazy. I do like how the shorter guy apparently watches hockey because how he grabbed the other guy and punched him was straight out of a NHL fight.
Airlines ramped up the travel pressure with issues like needing to be IT Literate, Mobile ready, not being able to pay in cash for extras, not letting physical Travel Agents take a lead, costly penalties for one mistake. Not to mention the refund or repayment jiggery-pokery they conducted. Then, bring on Covid and all the additional pressures and you start to trigger potential explosive elements in some who don’t do high stress very well. All in all, flying is now like jumping into a hot cauldron, not into your dreams.
@CHRIS – why not take the open racism to VFTW, where you can flourish w/the other Hoaxers, White Nationalists, and QAnon types?
I took a flight out of Miami last week. The airport was a zoo. I started to pay attention on the people flying and it was scary. Low, low, low class!!!! From the way they were dressing to the way they behaved. Not the type of people you usually see on planes. And before anyone try to play the snowflake card, I am not talking about race, gender, religion, etc… It was just overall very low class human beings.
“It was just overall very low class human beings.”
If that is true, then it sounds like you’d be at home with them.
I for one have been enjoying the unlimited free entertainment across the spectrum
Sometimes ya just gotta fight it out
Wait, the present reality of travel including the mask contribute to this bad environment??? What? Now masks are being blamed for fighting at airports. No, the only thing to blame is the idiots who engage in this nonsense.
@Aaron: where you there? Are those guys on the video the type of people you hang out with?
Ratchet.
What’s in the water in Florida?
They should put an officer in every terminal, even if they pay them overtime.
Or ignore the fact that it’s Always a black person(s) and then who’s the racist ? Why it’s YOU
Really, this is becoming so sad.
You got it wrong…it’s FloriDUH. Why are the flghts always at American Airlinea?
@Santastico
How could I when you are monopolizing all of their time…
I love watching the urban trash fighting, it makes a great show!!! Of course I always buy a first class ticket, won’t fly on any airline that doesn’t have separate cabins. I always go to nightclubs that charge cover, it’s surprising what scumbags a $10.00 cover will keep out.
I wish they would just stick to Spirit.
Life in America. This is the result of low fares, attracting the bus crowd and it’s not going to change.
We are the poster child of the world for the classless, clueless and proud!
Heeza gud boyee he didndu noffin.
I’m 58 and these things never happened when I was flying in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Flying back then was a pleasure. Why is this happening now? Have people changed? No, people don’t change. I place the fault squarely on the airlines and the FAA with all their stupid newfangled oppressive rules and regulations, overbooking of flights, and crowding people like sardines in a plane. Those are the things that antagonize and agitate people and make them angry and unruly. And the flight attendants are caught in the middle, they’re only doing what their bosses tell them to do in order to get their paychecks.
black Lives Matter. Peaceful protesters.
Always black people acting up at airports. We should stop embarrassing ourselves.
What on Earth does any of this have to do with BLM, other than offering racists a chance to proclaim some coded racism?
Companion more than break out , trying also punch white guy !!!!!
M Jones has it right. As someone who remembers the “good old days of airline service and travel”, I sympathize with people losing their cool due to the customer-hostile environment of airports and general public airline flights.
If u know ur not going to get fined enough money to make u think twice ….watch us spoiled Americans carry on like it’s the norm….
I think M Jones is on to something. I think a lot of this is caused by stress. For some time already, flying was becoming more stressful. This was particularly true for the occasional flyer, as travel had unfortunately becoming something that requires a lot of knowledge to navigate well, especially if anything went wrong, and things do go wrong. (I remember well deciding years ago after some terrible international flights for work in economy that unless I figured out how travel better, I was going to have to stop working in that area. That is when I started reading all of these travel blogs and flyertalk.) For a long time, my goal has been to make travel as stress-free as possible, and if possible, even pleasant. But the average person does not have the knowledge to do that.
Now layer on to that the fewer, fuller flights, high levels of COVID anxiety, wearing masks (anyone who says they are physically irritating to wear, whatever you think about their efficacy, is not telling the truth), and less service at the airport and on board, you are going to get even more people to act out.
And I don’t see that changing until the stress reduces somehow.
Personally, I thought before the pandemic that, if you knew how to work the system, we were in a golden age of travel in international business class and lounges. With indications that service may remain at pandemic levels if only for expense reduction, I wonder if that age is over for now.
Always a group of negros involved in these brawls.