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American Airlines has suspended a crew member and issued an apology after a video uploaded to Facebook on Friday captured an incident between a flight attendant and passengers.
The clip posted to Facebook by Surain Adyanthaya shows a woman in tears at the front of the plane and then a confrontation between a passenger one of the flight attendants.
“AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her. AA591 from SFO to DFW,” read the video caption.
The confrontation appears to begin after one of the passengers, seemingly angered by the treatment of the crew towards the woman and her baby, gets up and sends a message to one of the flight attendants.
“Hey bud, you do that to me and i’ll knock you flat,” said the passenger in the video.
The AA flight attendant immediately responds telling the angered passenger to “stay out of this.”
Tensions quickly escalate and the passenger and the flight attendant find themselves face to face.
“Hit me, come on, hit me,” the flight attendant can be heard saying in the video,
A war of words ensues as the flight crew separate the two and attempt to defuse the situation.
The video has since racked up 5.7 million views on Facebook.
Although the claims made by Adyanthaya in the video caption haven’t been confirmed, American Airlines issued an apology regarding the incident on Friday.
“We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts,” reads the statement from American Airlines. “What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip.”
American Airlines also said in the statement that they have since removed the flight crew member involved in the incident.
“The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.”
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