The woman said she "didn't hear" the FA. OK. But it was said she was on her phone and the FA had tried to communicate with her 4 times, or such.
Her being on the phone aside, she kept pleading that she "didn't hear".
Got me to thinking: my mom is stone deaf, hard of hearing, and is a disaster if she doesn't put in her hearing aids. How much aggressiveness can a FA have on those who are hearing impaired? It's often hard to pick out a hearing impaired person on sight. What threshold should FA's use to boot pax off the plane who turn out to be hearing impaired and don't appear to respond to commands/admonishment right away?
Just curious.
My opinion, after seeing the video and the Washington Post stuff, is that the AA flight attendant blew it and overreacted. Scary that they can throw you off in a setting like this.