American Airlines passenger screams at crew over 'tyranny' of flight's mask mandate, put on no-fly list

The situation inside an American Airlines flight traveling from Charlotte to Washington D.C. Sunday became tense after a passenger refused to wear her face mask properly and chose to loudly voice her frustrations to others on the flight. “All I saw and what I woke up to was her screaming about how this was tyranny, and we have to stand up for this,” passenger Jonathan Asfour told WCNC Charlotte.

Other passengers recounted how a hostile exchange began after those sitting on the same row as the woman allegedly voiced concerns that she continued to wear her mask below her nose. She refused to fix it when asked by flight attendants, who later called in the Federal Air Marshall to help alleviate the situation. “He calmed her down," Asfour told the outlet. "He was the only person able to do that. The stewardess and flight attendants couldn’t do anything. She was just going crazy.”

Asfour, who lives in Washington D.C., claimed he has observed "more acts of defiance" such as this were "becoming the norm." “It seems like we’re getting an influx of people flying into D.C. to have this agenda of saving democracy and starting a revolution and doing all these frankly very ridiculous things obviously," he said, referring to the Capitol riots last week.

The passenger was escorted off the plane by Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Police as soon as the flight landed. American Airlines is reportedly putting the passenger on its "no-fly list" pending further investigation. The identity of the passenger was not made public at the time of writing.

Earlier this month, a heated argument between a woman and a group of anti-maskers was captured on camera at a mall in Los Angeles. The alleged incident took place on January 3 at Westfield Century City Mall when the unidentified woman, who claimed to be a doctor by profession, shouted at the anti-maskers, “My mother is in the hospital with Covid you a**hole!” Metro reported. In response, one of the persons protesting a California state mandate ordering people to wear face masks in public, said, “A lot of people are. People die. That’s life. People die. Your father’s not special.”

The confrontation was filmed by journalist Emily Holshouser, who then shared it on Twitter. “One of the more intense moments was when a woman who said she’s a doctor shouted at the anti-maskers from behind a makeshift barricade. 'My mother is in the hospital with Covid,' she said. 'People die. That’s life. Your father’s not special,' an anti-masker replies,” Holshouser wrote.

The clip also showed the woman yelling, “Arrest him, I’m a doctor!” as she continued, “You morons. People are dying.” One anti-masker called her “Nazi”, she replied, “I'm a doctor, you a**hole. I hope that you get it.” The protestors even went on to say the woman "needs therapy. You are a liar.” Police were then seen in the video separating the woman from the group. Aside from the aforementioned clip, Holshouser shared several other videos that showed anti-maskers getting into verbal as well as physical altercations at the mall.