Frontier Airlines brawl breaks out after white man punches black man for taking too long to collect belongings from overhead bin, as he calls him the N word. Racism cited.
Define flying etiquette…?
Disconcert has come to the fore after a fight broke out between two passengers trying to exit a Frontier Airlines plane at Miami International Airport on board on Sunday night.
Kiera Pierre Louis, who goes by her hip-hop name Milli Miami, recorded the unfolding incident (see below) which occurred after the flight from Philadelphia landing in Miami, Sunday around 9:30 p.m.
According to the shocked witness, a ‘white’ passengers became irritated with a ‘black’ passenger who he felt was taking too long to collect his belongings from the overhead bin, and blocking his way out.
Speaking to Local 10 News, Pierre Louis described the white man throwing the first punch, she and calling the black passenger the ‘N’ word.
‘Racism, of course,’
‘I couldn’t believe what was going on,’ Pierre Louis told the media outlet. ‘You can see the white man on top of the black passenger and just beating him between the seats’.
Adding, ‘The flight attendant got involved, the white man’s wife got involved, his son, I believe his son’s girlfriend, um, everyone was just involved.’
Louis also noted that the white man who reportedly started the fight was allowed to leave the plane, while the black man was told to stay behind.
‘Racism, of course,’ Pierre Louis claimed. ‘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, however, said the black passenger was ‘not held back,’ but instead chose to stay on the plane so he could file a police report.
Ultimately, they said, he decided not to press charges, and the white man who reportedly started the brawl was allowed to leave.
The brawl only came to an end after several other passengers and a flight attendant were able to get the white man whose identity remained unknown off the black man, and push him forward to deplane.
Violent episodes over America’s skies
The black man, who was also not named, could be seen trying to follow him, only for a black female passenger who appeared to hold him back, as others on the plane shouted at him to ‘get out.’
Frontier Airlines referred any questions about the incident to the Miami-Dade Police Department, but confirmed in a statement to Local 10 News that a fight broke out on its flight from Philadelphia to Miami.
‘All passengers involved were asked to remain on the aircraft, however some disregarded the flight crew’s instructions,’ the statement read. ‘Ultimately, local law enforcement became involved.’
Sunday’s fight is just the latest in a string of violent incidents that have been documented at terminals and inside airplanes since air travel started to resume in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced in June that airlines have reported more than 3,000 incidents involving unruly passengers since January 1, with about 76 percent of the nearly 3,300 reports involving passengers who refused to wear masks on board their flights.
It has collected $682,000 in these penalties since the new regulations went into effect according to the dailymail.
