An expletive-filled video made its rounds of social media, depicting a Black man, who was clearly bothered by a baby’s screams on a Southwest flight headikng to Florida, yelling fervently on a plane to the crew and passengers over a crying baby.
According to the almost four-minute TikTok, the person who recorded the incident on the the Southwest Airlines flight to Florida stated that the man’s incessant yelling occurred while the plane was stuck in a holding pattern due to inclement weather.
The clip, labeled “Belligerent passenger causes diversion,” went viral on the video-sharing app, garnering over 100k views within a day and over 4k comments.
While the man has yet to be identified, his intense argument with the surrounding personnel was audible in the footage. He exclaimed how he “paid for a ticket to have a f–king comfortable flight…That child has been crying for 45 minutes.”
A group of flight attendants attempted to reason with the upset passenger, but only enraged him further.
He then implied a double standard in their handling of the situation due to the infant’s race, saying “if that child was a Black baby, what the f–k would be happening right now?” The passenger himself appears to be African-American.
At that point, the Southwest employees on the flight proceeded with calling authorities to arrive upon their landing into Florida.
Upon hearing of their intentions to involve police in the matter, the enraged passenger spoke further “they can put cuffs on that kid, I’m good with going to jail.”
Commenters expressed mixed opinions on the matter, as some expressed sympathy with the man’s plight:
“I’m a parent and I understand his frustration. The overstimulation of having to listen to a child scream and cry would be too much…”
Others, on the other hand, were substantially in favor of the child and their family, with one sharing “I just know the [baby’s] mom is traumatized to fly again.”
As reported by Today, Southwest has since put out a brief statement on the incident:
“We do not have details on this flight to share but commend our flight crew for their professionalism and offer our apologies to the other customers onboardt.”
So far, no information has been released to the press about if charges were filed against the angry passenger.
