Southwest Airlines passengers experienced a scandalous event courtesy of an unruly female passenger who refused to wear mask on a flight from Dallas, Texas to Longbeach, California. A video posted to TikTok by Coach Cordell Lander (@therbcoach), who was also on the plane, shows a woman being asked to abide by Covid-19 safety measures. She is seen not cooperating and maskless, comparing herself to Rosa Parks and went on foolishly while being escorted off the flight. The video went viral with over 5.8 million views so far.
The flight was about to leave Dallas when a Southwest flight attendant noticed that the woman, who was sitting in the last back seat of the plane, was not wearing properly a mask, warning her if she did not comply with putting on her mask, she would be removed from the plane.
In order to keep her face uncovered, the passenger replied saying she was eating apples and bananas. Seeing that the passenger was not willing to cooperate with the safety procedures, other passengers started to show some irritation against the woman as the flight did not take off because of her unruly action. Things got worse when a flight attendant announced on the speaker that everybody would have to deboard the plane.
As she refuses to wear mask on the flight, the woman started to say she needs to “take a stand” like Rosa Parks and Anne Frank. “ We have to take a stand (against mandatory face mask rules). “It probably didn’t make sense for Rosa. It probably didn’t make sense for Anne Frank either.”
Upon hearing that the woman was comparing herself to Rosa Parks – a Black historical human rights activist- a Black woman intervened, asking her:” “So now you’re being a racist?”
The situation only got back to normal after the woman was removed from the flight.
As Newsweek reported, after the woman was removed from the plane, she was denied re- boarding and was fully refunded for her travel, the Southwest Airlines’ press office commented.
“The remaining passengers scheduled to travel on flight 2265 continued to LGB, arriving nearly two hours behind schedule,” the spokesperson told Newsweek. “We apologize for the inconvenience to others scheduled on this flight, as we worked to ensure all Customers were compliant with the federal mask mandate.”
Incidents involving passengers refusing to wear face masks have reached 668 reports year-to-date numbers current as of March 28, 2022, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
As Travel Noire reported recently, The CEOs of multiple US-based airlines along with Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, sent a letter to President Biden and his administration requesting the government suspend mandates of wearing masks in airports and on airplanes.