Two passengers were removed from an Auckland-bound Air New Zealand flight at Wellington Airport after allegedly refusing to pay attention to a safety briefing Tuesday morning.
The man and woman, described by fellow passengers as "wealthy-looking" and appearing "high maintenance," were seated in the exit row, which requires special instructions.
"The video started playing and the flight attendant held up the card but the woman started looking down at her book," a nearby passenger told Stuff. "A flight attendant said very patiently 'can you please watch what's happening because this is the exit row.'"
The passenger said the man and woman instead kept looking at their phones.
"The flight attendant was super kind and kept asking her but the woman put her fingers in her ears," she added. "They didn't seem to care. The passengers behind them were saying 'for God's sake, it takes two minutes to look at it, just look at it'...they seemed like they were too important for it."
The plane eventually returned to the gate so the two passengers could be removed, delaying the flight by at least 25 minutes.
Police confirmed the incident in a statement to The New Zealand Herald: "Police were requested to meet a passenger at Wellington Airport today after she failed to comply with crew instructions. The passenger will receive an infringement notice under Civil Aviation Authority rules relating to the use of a cellphone."
The witness described the behavior as "shockingly arrogant."
"You'd think they'd be embarrassed or mortified but they seemed quite chuffed about the whole thing," she told Stuff.
Last month, a North Carolina woman was kicked off of a Frontier Airlines flight and arrested after complaining about her daughter's vomit-soaked seat.
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