This is the moment an entire flight reportedly had to deplane as a woman complaining of claustrophobia wanted an aisle seat. Photo / Reddit
This is the moment an entire flight reportedly had to deplane as a woman complaining of claustrophobia wanted an aisle seat. Photo / Reddit
Hundreds of passengers were left furious after an entire flight had to be deplaned because a claustrophobic woman demanded an aisle seat despite having to sit in a window seat.
Footage from a United Airlines flight to Rome shows the woman’s husband continuously arguing with passengers and cabin crew about the situation.
Minutes dragged on as the couple refused to settle, with one frustrated passenger asking: “So you’re going to kick everyone off? You’re going to make everyone get off now?”
Refusing to settle or get off the flight, the woman’s husband then told passengers to “blame” the cabin crew for not accommodating his wife.
This is the moment an entire flight reportedly had to deplane as a woman complaining of claustrophobia wanted an aisle seat. Photo / Reddit
The passenger replies: “I’m blaming you because you’re the one who’s going to make us all get off because you’re not leaving. Because you didn’t get your way.
“I understand she’s supposed to have her seat but you’re not going to disrupt it for everybody.”
The woman’s husband responds: “Oh yes we are.”
The angry husband, sitting in the middle seat, claimed his wife spent $142 extra to have an aisle seat as she suffers from claustrophobia but ended up with her “worst-case scenario, against the wall.”
The husband claimed his wife had paid extra for an aisle seat. Photo / Reddit
The flustered wife can then be heard telling her husband “we have to get off the plane”.
The husband then questions the attendant on what will happen when they disembark.
While the arguments are going on, other passengers appear to be collecting their possessions.
It comes just weeks after a Kiwi sports star was filmed arguing with a flight attendant aboard an aircraft at Bali’s Denpasar Airport on September 20.
Zakir Slaimankhel, a high-profile Kiwi international rugby player and charity ambassador, claimed there was an altercation between the cabin staff and his wife and young children, who he says were teething at the time.
During the argument, he claimed the interaction left his wife in tears and accused staff of mishandling his pram.
“They made her cry and she’s crying because they were being rude to her. With a newborn baby,” he could be heard telling the flight attendant.
He then said: “You can’t upset my family and kids. What are you talking about: ‘You can’t upset my crew,’ my wife is crying.”
“Tell security to come and take me by the balls,” he later added.
Finally, he told the flight attendant to: “Get out of my face,” before the staff walked away.
The argument escalated and the flight attendant told him to “stop” a number of times. But Slaimankhel continued to demand an apology.
“Unless you carry my kids out, force them out, we’re not leaving,” he said.
At another point, he told the staff member to: “Bring the police here,” to which the flight attendant responded: “We are.”
Slaimankhel was told he swore and was rude towards the staff, to which he responded: “You’re getting angry at my wife because both of them (their kids) are double teething.”
In a statement to news.com.au, a Qantas spokesperson claimed the family were eventually removed from the aircraft after clashing with the crew “a number of times prior to the flight departing Bali”.
