The man was allegedly removed from the flight after passing gas loudly and being rude. Photo / 123rf
An American Airlines aircraft reportedly turned around and removed a passenger due to their excessive gas and rude behaviour.
A witness who claimed to be on the flight shared his experience on Reddit in a now-viral post, under the username u/Glamgalatx, the Independent reported.
According to the man’s account, the flight was due to fly from Phoenix, Arizona, to Austin, Texas on January 14 and had been travelling towards the runway for take off when it was forced to return to the gate.
Seated near the problematic passenger, the poster said they appeared “audibly disgruntled” and “maybe hungover” as people boarded the aircraft. At one point, he overheard the passenger say: “You thought that was rude? Well how about this smell,” then loudly passed gas.
“[I don’t know] what provoked that comment, and while kinda funny to overhear, it was uncalled for especially coming from a grown man on an airplane nonetheless,” the poster wrote.
The passenger’s rude behaviour soon prompted responses from surrounding fliers.
“A guy in the row over replied, ‘if you don’t like it you can fly private’ to which fartman says ‘that’s so f****ng rude”, and another person nearby chimes in ‘I think we’d all agree you’re the rude one here’,” the poster claims.
The offending passenger allegedly responded by saying “that’s just so low class”, which prompted the other fliers to make the point that they were all flying economy, so they were all the same class.
By this point, the plane had left the gate and was nearing the runway and preparing for takeoff. Abruptly, the aircraft stopped and returned to the gate.
“An announcement comes over saying ‘apologies for the interruption but we are returning to the gate, we will give you more info when we have it’,” the poster writes.
When they returned to the gate, a flight attendant allegedly approached the flatulent passenger and informed him that he could not stay on the flight.
“He simply replies, ‘I don’t understand,’ and she tells him they’ll talk about it off the plane,” the poster said.
Fortunately, the passenger did not put up a fight and allegedly grabbed his bag and quietly left the plane.
“We all breathed a sigh of relief when he was removed, I think most people were on edge about what he may say or do next,” the poster read.
Despite the smelly disruption, the poster praised the American Airlines staff for handling the issue “siwftly” so the flight was only delayed by 15 to 30 minutes.