I was waiting to push back on UA 3493 last Thursday morning and it turns out somebody else wasn't ready. There was a guy just standing in the aisle of row 20. The FA came on and said they needed everyone seated & buckled, then waited a few minutes. Then the pilot came on the PA and said the same thing -- by FAA rules they couldn't push back until he got the all clear that everyone was seated & buckled. Then the guy in the aisle comes up to the front to berate the FA about how they're not giving him enough time to get settled, how they're treating families inhumanely/poorly, etc. The whole time he's video recording with his phone.... I guess hoping to get a huge settlement.
I've gotta hand it to the crew. They handled it in an exemplary manner. The pilot came out of the cockpit, they called a supervisor and opened the door so she could board and go talk to the guy. A few minutes later she walks off and says something to the pilot & FA up front. Then a minute or so later the guy's wife and one of his kids walks off. He's taking his sweet time getting his "stuff" together, and about 5 minutes later he finally walks off with his other kid.
Of course that ~45 min delay was enough that we missed the clear weather and by the time we got to push back and taxi, we're
#30 in line and they're holding flights, slowly releasing them. We got off the ground almost an hour later.
I'm sure the guy's threatening to sue UA and will "never fly this airline again" but the crew handled everything very patiently. The captain apologized profusely to everyone about the delay. I don't think anyone was upset at UA, but everyone seemed pretty peeved with the guy causing the delay, just because he could. I mean really, how hard is it to take your seat and buckle your kid in for takeoff? And is it really worth getting your entire family tossed from the flight to prove your point? The lead FA said in 19 years she's only seen one other person removed from a flight, so I guess it's not that common. I haven't seen the video of this one on YouTube yet.... but I'm sure it's coming.