Mother, daughter kicked off Southwest Airlines after video of them creating a scene goes viral
A TikTok video going viral shows a mother-daughter duo disrupting a Southwest Airlines flight. As per reports, they were kicked off of the flight going from Sacramento, California to San Diego, California in mid-July after allegedly yelling at other passengers and threatening to grab onto people during the flight.
The viral TikTok video was posted by an account called @official_norcal_mom. The video has reportedly been watched close to 500,000 times. It shows the two women in the aisle of the still-grounded plane. The text overlay of the video claimed that the flight had already been delayed two hours and that the women had boarded right before the plane doors closed.
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As per the Southwest Airlines website, their flights have open seating, “Once on board, simply choose any available seat and stow your carryon items in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you.” The website FAQs section also mentions, “Available boarding positions will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis upon check-in. The earlier you check-in, beginning 24 hours before departure, the lower your boarding group and position will be.”
Reportedly, the two women in question wanted aisle seats. The daughter allegedly tried to “make an announcement” to the whole plane asking other passengers to move seats. A flight attendant told her she couldn’t do that. “We have families,” the flight attendant said to the younger of the two women. “We have little kids. We can’t have people yelling.”
The woman reportedly responded by saying she wasn’t yelling. Another attendant intervened and said that the crew would call a supervisor to handle the situation. The younger woman then said she and her mother would sit down, adding (presumably sarcastically) that her mother “can just cry and scream on the plane. She’s gonna grab onto you and scream and cry.”
“Okay ma’am, if you’re going to say things like that, we’re going to have to put you on a different jet,” a second flight attendant responded. The older woman then said that she wouldn’t. The pair were then asked to move back into the jetway.
The younger woman could then be seen explaining the situation to her mother. The TikTok user noted that the flight attendants felt the other passengers would not be safe with the duo on board, so they were removed from the flight. “They will likely not be allowed to fly on [Southwest] again,” @official_norcal_mom wrote.
The TikTok user added that the flight was delayed an additional hour because of the two. She said that the rest of the plane applauded when the two left the plane. “Thanks Southwest for doing the right thing and getting them off the plane,” @official_norcal_mom said in a follow-up video.
Last month, a fully-vaccinated California family was barred from boarding a Southwest Airlines plane because a non-verbal autistic teenager among them refused to wear a mask. LaShaunda Jethro shared her experience with a local news channel, telling them how flight attendants refused to let them board the flight until she pulled out reports of their vaccination status and a doctor's note about her son. The cabin crew then allowed them entry. But soon after, they kicked them off the flight claiming Jethro wasn't wearing a mask. Jethro, however, maintained that she was wearing an oversized mask that kept sliding off her face.