Worst Passenger of the Week: A Bigot Trifecta
Jeff Edwards February 24, 2017
Every Friday, FlyerTalk looks back at the week’s most charming individuals. While there are always plenty of contenders for our Worst Passenger of the Week award, only one lucky flyer can take home the glory. Here are this week’s winners.
Mi·sog·y·ny /məˈsäjənē/ noun dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
When a group of ultra-Orthodox men allegedly refused to take their seats on an EasyJet flight from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) to London Luton Airport (LTN), chaos ensued. Reportedly ignoring repeated requests from the captain to be seated in preparation for takeoff, the entourage of defiant passengers refused to comply until several woman on the flight agreed to change seats.
According to the airline, the flight was delayed for about 15 minutes before the plane could safely depart. Police at LTN met the aircraft on arrival and escorted the men from the plane in order to avoid any further “breach of the peace.”
“A group of around 10 ultra-Orthodox men caused absolute bedlam on the flight,” one eyewitness on last week’s flight told reporters. “At one point there were about 10 men in black hats blocking the aisles and refusing to sit down. When some of the women got up and moved seats to ensure that the plane got to take off, some of these men never even thought about saying ‘thank you’.”
Although the incident seems to have stemmed form the group’s strict adherence to religious beliefs rather than an intent to offend, a little advanced planning would have reportedly gone a long way towards limiting the inconvenience and humiliation of other innocent passengers on the flight. Though a few female passengers willingly relocated in a futile attempt to depart on schedule, as a rule, no flyer should ever have to give up a prime window seat just because they happen to be a woman.
A passenger’s allegedly racist tirade against another flyer ended with the unidentified man being escorted from a boarding flight at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) while other passengers on the plane cheered and videotaped the walk of shame with their phones. Prior to his ejection, the vocal passenger had reportedly been harassing a flyer of Middle Eastern descent.
Before being removed from the flight, the accused racist got a taste of his own medicine and was mercilessly harangued by fellow passengers who were unamused by the man’s purportedly offensive and xenophobic pre-flight rant.
“Happy flight home; hope you stay there,” the unpleasant passenger offered by way of a parting shot. “Hey, I’ll come back, [but] you’ll be gone.”
Although boorish, and even racist behavior will sometimes go unchecked on a commercial flight, the uncouth flyer in this case likely got himself into hot water for his failed attempt to be clever. It’s been proven time and again that hinting a fellow passenger might be a terrorist based on only their appearance will not get the false accuser automatically booted. However, when the bigoted passenger in this instance reportedly asked the flyer sarcastically if he had a bomb in his suitcase, it was very much a bridge too far.
Rap star Mykki Blanco claims that homophobia caused another flyer to call the police on a recent Delta Airlines flight due to depart from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). According to Blanco, not only did the would-be-seatmate refuse to take his seat next to the performer, the nightmare flyer made it clear that he considered Blanco’s very existence to be a crime and alerted authorities.
Unfortunately for Blanco, it seems that in this particular case, authorities agreed with the homophobic passenger’s cruel assessment.
“He said that he was not comfortable and did not know how Delta allowed ‘someone like me’ to board the plane with him and sit next to him.” Blanco wrote in a series of Twitter posts. “This is REAL @Delta, Then I was told by a police officer that an FBI report would be made from our ‘interaction’, except I did not interact. I was told I would ‘go to jail’ if I continued to ask questions about why this police office was giving preferential treatment to this man.”
The hip-hop artist, who identifies as both transgender and multi-gendered, later referred to the ordeal as “the most bizarre form of homophobia I have ever encountered.” It appears that at least someone at Delta Airlines feels the same.
“Hi Mykki, I honestly can’t believe what my eyes are reading,” the airline wrote in response to the performer’s tweets. “I am so very sorry to hear that you had to experience… something like this on a Delta flight. Discrimination of any kind isn’t tolerated. We love ALL of our passengers.”
The company official went on to urge Blanco to get in contact with the airline to provide more details about the unfortunate incident.
[Photo: Newsflare/Iwirerick]
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