Two passengers were escorted from a Delta flight amid an argument about a woman’s “lucky pennies” minutes before take off.
Fellow passengers onboard an aircraft bound for Atlanta watched the encounter unfold on the tarmac at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale airport on Tuesday night.
Video of the incident on social media shows a woman and her male companion being disruptive – before Delta Airlines removed them from the flight after the plane was forced to return back to the airport from the runway.
Brianna Morfesi, a passenger who captured the moment the two passengers were forced to disembark from the plane, told WPLG-TV the pair began “yelling and cursing” from the moment they boarded the flight, which was destined for Atlanta.
“They were very rude’, said the fellow passenger of the “embarrassing” encounter. “She just started going at it, the whole cussing and yelling and just being really obnoxious.”
While the plane was taxing down the runway, Delta cabin crew called for back-up and the aircraft was forced to return to the gate where the two disruptive passengers disembarked.
“It was something that you don’t think you’re ever going to see in real life and then you witness it, and like oh my gosh,” Ms Morfesi added of the flight.
The video, which was shared to Instagram, shows the woman arguing and shouting: “What did I do wrong? Can you tell me: What did I do wrong!?”
While cabin crew surround the woman, she bends down to pick up an item and screams: “My lucky ******* pennies, I’m getting my lucky pennies and you can shut up.”
In a statement, Delta told The Independent that “flight 1582 from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta on 1 February took a 28 minute departure delay as two unruly customers were deplaned back into the terminal”.
“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior at our airports and on our flights as nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and flight crews. We apologise for any inconvenience the departure delay may have had for our remaining customers.”
The incident comes after a record breaking year for Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) investigations into unruly passengers on US flights, with a total of 1,099 cases last year. As many as 323 disturbances have been reported so far in 2022.
