Frontier Airlines: Video of wild 'racist' brawl between passengers goes viral
On the night of Sunday, July 17, a brawl broke out between two passengers attempting to depart a plane at Miami International Airport, the latest in a string of over 3,000 violent events involving air travel since January, news outlets revealed on Tuesday, July 19.
The incident is reminiscent of a violent brawl that broke out on a Spirit Airlines flight mid-air in May this year when the crew threatened to land the plane, as seen in videos that went viral on social media.
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In October last year, a JetBlue passenger wearing a Burger King crown who called other flyers the N-word was thrown off a plane after triggering a brawl. In June this year, a Delta Airlines flight attendant was hailed a hero after he stopped an unidentified man from attempting to break into the cockpit on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Nashville.
During July 17's incident, Kiera Pierre Louis aka Milli Miami, a hip-hop artist, captured the whole event, which occurred after a Frontier Airlines aircraft from Philadelphia arrived in Miami, Florida, at 9.30pm, Daily Mail reported. "Frontier Airlines Fight on Plane #Karen strikes again….this happened," she wrote while posting the TikTok video on Instagram.
Black passenger was called the N-word
According to her, the White man became enraged with the Black passenger because he believed he was taking too long to collect his baggage from the overhead bin and was obstructing his exit. The White man then threw the first punch and reportedly called the Black passenger the N-word. "I couldn’t believe what was going on," said Pierre Louis. “You can see the White man on top of the Black passenger just beating him between the seats. The flight attendant got involved. The White man’s wife got involved. His son, I believe, and his son’s girlfriend — everyone was just involved," she said describing the scenes she caught on video, according to Local 10.
'Racism of course'
Several people attempted to interfere and break the fight, including a Frontier flight attendant. When the fight was finally over, Pierre Louis said that the White man who allegedly initiated the altercation was permitted to exit the plane, but the Black man was instructed to remain on board. “Racism, of course,” Pierre Louis said, adding that she believed that the way it was handled in the end had racial overtones. “The Black passenger had to wait on the plane, when he didn’t even start it, and the police, while we were walking off the plane, walked right past the person, the White man who actually initiated everything."
Miami-Dade Police clarified that the Black passenger was not detained, but instead decided to stay so he could submit a police complaint. He eventually chose not to file charges, and the passenger who reportedly initiated the incident was permitted to leave, according to them. The brawl is the latest in a series of violent events at airports and on aircraft since air travel resumed following the Covid-19 pandemic.