Now it's American Airlines' turn to apologize for an intense confrontational incident on an airplane.
A video went viral late Friday night, showing the aftermath of what happened onboard a flight scheduled to leave San Francisco for Dallas. A male flight attendant allegedly forcefully yanked a stroller away from a mother traveling with two children, apparently hitting the woman with the stroller and narrowly missing one of the children according to Facebook user Surain Adyanthaya, who captured the scene on his cellphone.
"OMG! AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her. AA591 from SFO to DFW," Adyanthaya wrote on his page.
Adyanthaya did not capture the incident itself, but the harrowing aftermath of the mother crying and one of the babies screaming, and a male passenger who came to her defense.
The passenger initially asked for the crew member's name and sat back down again. Then, as the situation continued, he got up again and stepped into the aisle, yelling, "Hey bud, hey bud, you do that to me and I'll knock you flat!" The flight attendant responded by also yelling "You stay out of this!" as the two men came face to face. No blows were exchanged as the captain came out of the cockpit and gently put his hand on the flight attendant and appeared to shoo him away.
As it turned out, American Airlines gate agents escorted the woman and her children off the plan and put them on a later flight, in first class. The crew member was "removed from duty."
American put out this statement at 11:30 p.m. EST last night, just hours after the incident.
"We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care," the carrier said. "After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip. The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident."
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American said it would open an investigation into the incident.
The incident comes less than two weeks after another video went viral, showing a passenger on a United Airlines flight being violently dragged up the aisle after being forcibly bumped from a flight.
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