The CEO of Delta Airlines responded Monday to a video of a man berating “Hillary bitches” on a flight last week, defending the flight crew’s decision not to kick the man off the plane but saying that he would not be allowed on a Delta flight again.
“After questioning the customer, our team members made the best decision they could given the information they had and allowed him to remain on the flight,” CEO Ed Bastian’s memo to staff reads in part. “However, if our colleagues had witnessed firsthand what was shown in the video, there is no question they would have removed him from the aircraft.”
The memo states that passengers on the Tuesday morning flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pennsylvania would be refunded the cost of their tickets and that the man in the video “will never again be allowed on a Delta plane.”
In a video posted to Facebook by Emma Baum, one of the passengers on the flight is seen standing up from his seat and yelling about Donald Trump to the rest of the plane.
“We got some Hillary bitches on here?” he says at one point, later adding “Donald Trump! He’s your president, every goddamn one of you. If you don’t like it, too bad.”
The flight crew had received criticism on social media for not kicking the man off of the flight. Baum told the Daily Mail that flight attendants did take the man away from his seat for “at least 15 minutes.”
In an earlier statement, Delta officials said “[w]e’ve followed up with the teams involved and all agree that this customer shouldn’t have been allowed to continue on the flight.”
Watch the incident below:
He’s your president…but you can call him “Tweetie”.
YES! I’m delighted that Delta is taking the side of decency in this.
Calling my shot: He’ll be invited as a guest to the State of the Union Address by some Trumpy congressdoof.
NOW, I feel like the airline has taken the right action. I am not sure I understand how the cabin crew could have missed what was going on, unless they were helping other passengers stow their bags in overhead compartments. Will there be additional efforts to monitor passengers’ behaviors?
Disclaimer - I am Platinum this year on Delta (Gold, next year), so I am interested in the long term fix besides making this guy walk to Allentown, PA.
He didn’t have a beard or speak muslin.