If you haven’t seen this viral video yet, brace yourself. A shocking scene unfolds on an American Airlines flight from São Paulo, Brazil to New York. Now, full disclosure: I don’t speak Portuguese (unless I’m attempting to butcher “bom dia” and “obrigado” while in Brazil or Portugal), so I’m relying on some translation from The Independent to understand the gist of what’s going on.
Mais confusão em um voo da American Airlines!
Desta vez, uma passageira brasileira foi até a cabine do voo AA950, que partiria de Guarulhos para o JFK, e cobrou o piloto sobre o atraso
Ela foi contida por um dos comissários e, posteriormente, proferiu ofensas homofóbicas. pic.twitter.com/HNfHXrvr0L
— AEROIN (@aero_in) April 28, 2025
What’s crystal clear from the footage is the level of force used by flight attendants was way over the top.
The incident went down on April 24 aboard Flight AA950, which was already delayed. According to The Independent, a woman, frustrated with the wait, decided to take matters into her own hands. She apparently yelled at a crew member, or possibly the pilot, as he was leaving the cockpit, saying, “Aren’t you ashamed? I’ll kick you in the balls.”
That’s when things took a turn. A male flight attendant immediately grabbed her in a reverse horse-collar maneuver, taking her to the floor in an aggressive move. Within seconds, he was escorting her forcefully down the aisle of the business class section.
As the drama unfolded, a male passenger jumped up, shouting at either the woman or the flight attendant. It wasn’t clear whether they knew each other, but he certainly wasn’t happy. Meanwhile, the woman continued to hurl insults and profanity at the crew.
In the end, both the woman and the angry male passenger were removed from the flight, which caused yet another delay. The plane eventually took off 2 hours and 25 minutes after its original departure time and arrived at the gate in New York a full 2 hours and 10 minutes late. See FlightAware screenshot above.
American Airlines issued a statement saying: “On Thursday, April 24, American Airlines flight 950, en route from São Paulo (GRU) to New York (JFK), returned to the gate before departure due to a security issue on board. The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority, and we appreciate our customers’ understanding.”
While the situation was certainly dramatic, it serves as a reminder of how quickly tensions can escalate on a plane. Don’t ever attempt to ‘rush’ a cockpit and always be friendly to the crew since they can make or break your trip. Besides, they don’t want to be late either so they’re probably just as frustrated as you.
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