A passenger on an American Airlines flight who was allegedly caught vaping in the bathroom was seen getting into a screaming match with one of the flight attendants.
Video of the showdown was originally posted to Instagram by the passenger, Peter Nguyen, but has since gone viral on other platforms, mainly Reddit.
Nguyen, whose Instagram is primarily dedicated to his career as a 'celebrity pickleball coach,' started recording the visibly upset flight attendant at some point during the Monday flight from Phoenix to San Francisco.
'I was actually sitting on the toilet, and you were opening the door,' he said while standing in the doorway of the bathroom.
'I don't care!' she shouted back, which led to him apologizing for vaping in the plane's bathroom. 'You can keep saying you're sorry, but I care about all these passengers.'
Shortly after this, the flight attendant appeared to reach for Nguyen's phone after she said she noticed him recording.
The video then cuts to Nguyen repeatedly accusing her of putting her hands on him. Another member of the flight crew showed up to defend her colleague.
'Why are you smoking? You're not supposed to be smoking!' she told Nguyen.
'Yes, but she put her hands on me. I have a lawyer. I am a lawyer,' he responded. 'I have 25,000 followers. I have 25,000 followers that are going to watch this.'
The two flight attendants were not intimidated by Nguyen's thinly-veiled threat of legal action, nor were they moved by his follower count.
Instead, one of them again chastised him for vaping, to which he replied: 'That's my bad.'
He soon went back to yelling at the flight attendant for invading his personal space and reminding her that he got everything that happened on camera.
'So, do you want me to release this or do you want to say sorry to me right now?' he offered.
The flight attendant did say she was sorry, which was only met with more accusations from Nguyen.
'I am actually gonna call the police when I get back on the ground. On you!' he said. 'You reached over me. You tried to grab my phone. You assaulted me.'
She denied assaulting him, but this didn't stop him from announcing what he said happened to the rest of the plane.
'This flight attendant assaulted me, everybody!' he said as he walked into the aisle. 'She put her hands on me.'
American Airlines confirmed that they were aware of the incident between Nguyen and the flight attendant.
'A customer on American Airlines flight 2860 with service from Phoenix (PHX) to San Francisco (SFO) was removed from the aircraft upon arrival at SFO due to disruptive behavior. We thank our customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience,' the airline said in a statement.
It's not clear if Nguyen ended up calling the police like he said he would, but American Airlines said officers did respond to the area once the plane landed.
'The San Francisco Police Department met the flight upon arrival and escorted the customer out of the concourse,' the airline added.
The reaction to Nguyen's in-flight theatrics was not positive. Some tagged American Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration while requesting that Nguyen be banned from flying.
Others had a laugh over his claim that he was a lawyer, with one person writing: '"I have a lawyer. I AM a lawyer" lmao. No dude you play pickleball.'
'So... you were breaking the law & instead of taking accountability you just berated a woman doing her job?' another person wrote.
'What a sorry attempt to portray yourself as a victim. Stop Vaping in the airplane, case closed,' a third wrote.
Vaping on a plane is a federal offense that can come with steep fines. If someone tampers with any of the plane's smoke detectors, they can get hit with an additional $2,000 penalty.
Read more
Komentar
Posting Komentar