Even while wearing a mask, it’s possible to be removed from a flight for violating guidelines. A man was deplaned from an Allegiant Air flight Monday morning after he allegedly asked a flight attendant to put a face mask on.
A video, posted to Twitter by @NancyELeonard, shows the man being removed from the flight after a confrontation with a flight attendant.
The video picks up after the alleged initial altercation. While some of the audio is difficult to make out, the man seems in disbelief when the flight attendant asks for him to leave the plane. It is unknown if the Allegiant Air employee in the video, who is wearing a face mask, is the flight attendant the man allegedly questioned about a face covering, or another employee.
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The video includes annoyed responses from other travelers who want the man to stay on the flight. “Allegiant has their frickin policy,” a man’s voice says on the video. “You’re supposed to be wearing a f****** mask to begin with.”
The man, who the flight attendant calls Mr. Peterman, then appears to ask the other passengers, “Why don’t you all get off with me?”. The flight attendant then threatens law enforcement will collect him if he refuses to leave.
Passengers continue to argue with the flight attendant in the video, including a woman saying “this is not right.” Others tell the flight attendant that removing the passenger is “not right,” to which she puts her hand up and says, “I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do.”
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As he stands, the passenger requests to speak with the plane’s pilot.
“Captian can I have a word with you please before I get kicked off? I just asked someone to put on their face mask. That’s all I did,” he says.
When he’s officially off the plane, the cabin is full of sighs and groans of disappointment.
Another video shows the man’s removal.
This elderly man was thrown off @allegiant airline this morning from Punta Gorda Florida this morning Because he asked the flight attendant why he had to wear a mask and she didn’t have to wear one pic.twitter.com/xZoui5zCrg
— Patrick (@peter61809160) September 7, 2020
Allegiant, like many other North American airlines, has a COVID-19 mask policy which requires all guests to keep their face coverings on “during all phases of travel, including at the ticket counter and in the gate area, as well as during the duration of the flight,” Allegiant explained to Newsweek via email. The airline even provides every traveler with a mask and disinfectant wipes.
The man was wearing a face mask throughout the entire exchange, as seen in the video.
Allegiant Air told Newsweek, “The passenger was removed for repeatedly disrupting the pre-flight safety briefing which includes reiteration of our inflight face-covering policy.”
The airline later explained that “the flight attendant giving the safety briefing lowered their mask for speaking into the PA so the briefing could be understood,” noting that the brief lowering of her mask is what triggered the passenger to be “disruptive.”
According to the airline’s website, “All crew members are required to wear a face covering at all times and gloves during inflight service.”
This isn’t the first time Allegiant has received complaints from passengers regarding face masks and flight attendants. A handful of tweets surfaced, as recently as this weekend, alleging that Allegiant staff wear their masks incorrectly or not at all.
Dear @Allegiant, if you’re going to tell people to wear masks on your flights, ya better have your flight attendants enforce it. We’re in a freaking pandemic. 😑
— HALEÂ¥STAACK (@NerdCaptnHaley) September 4, 2020
Had to fly home this week and gave @Allegiant a try for their said safety priorities. Was that a joke – even the flight attendants didn’t wear a mask while giving the SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS. They also did not enforce mask wearing on the plane which went against their policy. pic.twitter.com/jTXVPom2M7
— Toni the Towtruck (@tonicontour) August 31, 2020
One Twitter user even asked Allegiant to make sure their employees enforce the mask policy. “Enforcement of our mask policy is certainly expected from our flight attendants. I will be sure to share your feedback with our teams,” the Allegiant Twitter account responded on Friday.
Another praised Allegiant on Twitter for being “not that fussy” when it comes to enforcing the mask policy.
Just Landed ! Actually was impressive for @Allegiant . They gave me a free real drink and we not that fussy over mask. It was better than the last sw flight. Nice seat mate with middle seat empty ðŸ‘
— Payton Hall (@PaytonHallXXX) September 3, 2020
The airline was just named one of the Top 10 safest airlines to travel with during Covid-19, according to Travel Pulse.
Updated 09/07/2020 at 11:11 a.m.: This article was updated to add further clarification from Allegiant Air.