I witnessed an unusual event on a Southwest flight last night and was wondering if members on this site have seen something like this before.

I was on WN flight#560 PHL-BNA-DEN-ONT until DEN. The fully-loaded flight departed PHL 75 minutes late. Just prior to landing at BNA the FA announced that 3 non-rev pax would not be able to continue on, and one additional pax was needed to surrender his or her seat. Got the picture?

• Delayed flight
• A long night ahead
• Overbooked fight
• Lots of infrequent flying pax

At BNA as new pax boarded someone new sat beside me in the Emergency Exit Row (EER). When the FA saw all seats were filled in the EER he stopped to explain the ramifications/instructions of sitting there. However, pax next to me was jabbering on the cell phone. When FA asked pax to terminate the call to hear the EER procedures, the pax ignored him and said a profanity into the cell phone.

At this point the FA snapped and told pax he was going to be removed from the flight. Pax denied he did anything wrong and ended the call. Another FA intervened and got cell-phone talking pax next to me moved out of the EER to another seat, and someone new sat in the seat next to me. Pax who got moved threatened to file a complaint and FA involved asked those of us nearby to send comments to WN.

Although the pax next to me was rude in continuing the cell phone call, I was wondering if the FA overreacted. He may have thought the pax said something else, or perhaps was stressed out about getting the flight turned around quickly and did not want any BS from a pax on a cell call. Does anyone know if this was handled correctly?