Delta: Pilot Did Not Assault Passenger, but Instead “Deescalated” the Situation

Delta Air Lines is defending a captain who appeared to strike a female passenger in video captured on a jetway at the carrier’s Atlanta hub.

A Delta Air Lines captain was quietly suspended from duty while the carrier investigated his part in a violent altercation between two woman in a jetway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Airline officials are now defending the pilot’s actions, saying that he was simply attempting to put and end to the passenger’ fighting.

A video of the April 29 incident caused almost immediate public outrage after being released by TMZ. The short mobile phone video shows that the pilot appeared to grab one of the women (who were rolling on the floor fighting) by the arm and strike her as he attempted to separate the two feuding passengers. The bitter physical dispute reportedly occurred as passengers were disembarking from a just-arrived flight. According to initial media reports, the two woman involved in the fisticuffs had previously had a messy altercation with each other earlier during their trip.

Airline officials said that the company “immediately removed” an unidentified pilot from duty after becoming aware of the incident. The company confirmed that police were called to the scene and Delta conducted its own investigation into the way the situation was handled.

“The pilot has since been returned to work as our investigation found that his actions deescalated an altercation between passengers on the jetway floor during deplaning,” Delta said in a statement to reporters.

While the airline cleared the pilot of any wrongdoing, the two women were eventually escorted from the gate separately by Delta Air Lines employees. Police say that no one involved in the jetway melee is facing criminal charges, as both of the scraping passengers declined to file complaints against either each other or the pilot.

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