Man Attacked For Taking Too Long To Retrieve Bag From Overhead Bin On Frontier Airlines

In the latest onboard brawl that likely involved racist language, two men exchanged punches onboard a Frontier Airlines flight in Miami. The controversy arose after a man was accused of taking too long removing his bag from the overhead bin.

Passengers Exchange Punches On Frontier Airlines Over Race-Fueled Deplaning Incident

The incident occurred onboard a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia (PHL) to Miami (MIA).

Hip hop artist Milli Miami recoded part of the encounter and posted it on Instagram:

 

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She noted:

You can see the white man on top of the Black passenger just beating him between the seats. The flight attendant got involved. The white man’s wife got involved. His son, I believe, and his son’s girlfriend — everyone was just involved.

The video is not clear, to me.

From what I can tell, the white guy in the blue shirt was apparently taking too long to get his bag and exchanged words with the black man behind him. No racial slurs can be heard on the recording, though it is hard to imagine that the black passenger would attack the white passenger absent such harsh language.

I think we are looking at the same video, but View from the Wing seems to think that it was the white guy who attacked the black guy. I think the opposite occurred, since the black man is standing behind the white man (further back in the aircraft) and at 0:11 the white man appears to be walking away.

A Frontier Airlines spokesperson also did not shed further light on the incident:

Yesterday as a flight from Philadelphia to Miami was deplaning at MIA, a physical altercation broke out among passengers who were towards the back of the aircraft. The flight crew requested law enforcement assistance. All passengers involved were asked to remain on the aircraft however some disregarded the flight crew’s instructions. Ultimately, local law enforcement became involved.

Why black versus white instead of just saying two passengers? Obviously, because there seems to be a racial component at play.

A black woman also appears in the video to attack the white man.

What does this all mean? It is a reminder that patience is a virtue and that engaging with an angry passenger onboard leads to far more trouble than it is worth. Perhaps the white man was taking far too long. It is more than likely he said something nasty to the black passenger. The black passenger should have also taken the higher road and just ignored the racism instead of opening himself up to charges of assault by attacking the passenger…or perhaps the white man attacked the black man first, a similarly stupid move that cannot be justified no matter what he was called.

CONCLUSION

Your takeaway might be to avoid Florida or avoid Frontier Airlines, but my takeaway is to avoid confrontation. Easier said than done, of course, but this whole ugly incident could have been avoided with a bit of patience.