Last week, while waiting for our flight home to Texas, my family witnessed a bit of drama at the Orlando airport.
The Scene
We had disembarked from a cruise earlier that morning. The waiting area at our plane’s gate was full, so we sat across the hall at a nearby gate waiting to board. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes, so we had some extra time to wait. We didn’t realize it when we sat down, but were sitting next to a family that was just kicked off a flight before take-off.
We quickly got up to speed on the situation as multiple police officers went back and forth from this family to the gate agent to the other party involved in the fight. Plus, the family was calling other family members and telling them what happened. We couldn’t help but overhear the entire situation.
Two women from the same extended family got in a physical fight on the airplane before take-off. The entire family had to leave the plane. There were at least 8 people in the group that we could see. It doesn’t appear that anyone was arrested.
AA re-booked them on the next available flight, which was two days later. So, this entire family had to spend an additional two nights in Orlando on their own dime!
The Lesson
I talked to my kids about this after the family left the terminal. The lesson in this is: Don’t fight on an airplane! Don’t yell, don’t argue, and certainly do not engage in physical fighting. It could result in an arrest and/or getting kicked off the flight. And both of those things will cost a lot of money!
Have you ever witnessed drama like this on a flight or in the airport?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I love the family reviews you have. That story seems to be more common nowdays. I think I can guess the demographic. My friend in DFW owns Leviate air, if you ever want to charter instead, call them up. We’ve started doing it now with 3 kids. Great group.
I wonder what their destination was that AA was completely booked and couldn’t get them booked again for 2 days.
@2808 I believe the destination was Austin. Many Texas schools had spring break last week, so there was a lot of people returning to Texas. Plus, they were a larger group.
The only drama I’ve witnessed is a couple getting in trouble for joining the mile high club. They wouldn’t come out of the bathroom and it caused some commotion on the plane. When they finally came out, the flight attendants separated them the rest of the flight. They were escorted off the plane when we landed but I think they must’ve just gotten a stern warning bc I saw them a few minutes later at baggage claim. The woman loudly explained that her first husband died young and life was short and if she wanted to get busy in a plane, she would.
@Jennifer Oh my! I simply don’t get the fascination of the mile high club. Airplane bathrooms are usually gross.