While some people love flying so much that they want to book a flight to nowhere, traveling via airplane is stressful for others. From crying babies to waiting in long lines to get through airport security, there can be a lot of unpleasant points about traveling on a plane with a lot of other people. Add the coronavirus to the mix, and it doesn’t get any easier.
Airlines have taken measures to make sure flying in the age of COVID-19 is as safe as possible. One of these measures is requiring that passengers wear a face mask. Wearing a face mask on an airplane is not required by federal law, but it is required by the individual airlines.
There have been multiple passengers who have refused to comply with the airline face mask policy, and sometimes these passengers can be quite disruptive. According to Paul Hartshorn Jr., an Association of Professional Flight Attendants spokesperson, “Anyone exhibiting threatening, abusive behavior should be added to a no-fly list and we are currently in discussions with other labor unions and lawmakers in D.C. as to what that would look like but make no mistake the action needs to be swift.”
Recently, a female passenger who boarded an American Airlines flight at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport refused to wear her face mask over her nose. Another passenger started recording the disruptive woman who ended up taking her face mask off entirely and yelling at the passengers and crew members.
In the video, we hear her yelling, “If we don’t stand up, it’s only going to get worse.” Meanwhile, passengers yell back telling her to put her mask on and telling the crew to have her removed from the plane. Watch the video below to see this dramatic scene for yourself.
According to the woman who was escorted off the flight, she has received the coronavirus vaccine, and she has trouble breathing with a mask over her nose. Maybe that’s her excuse for not wearing the face mask properly, but we’re not sure how she thinks that excuses her behavior yelling at the passengers and crew without wearing a face mask at all.
According to Hartshorn, mask non-compliance has been increasing among passengers over the past 6 months. Often, passengers seem to comply when they board the plane, but after the plane takes off, some of them also take off their face masks.
If you have flown recently, have you noticed any passengers being disruptive or refusing to wear their face mask?