American Airlines: Flight turns around as passenger removed from aircraft for farting excessively

A disgruntled passenger was allegedly removed from an American Airlines flight for farting excessively. The early evening flight on 14 January from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas was forced to return due to the passenger.

According to a passenger who was on the flight, the aircraft was delayed by 15 to 30 minutes. The traveller, from Texas, explained the incident on the platform Reddit.

The traveller described the incident as “kinda funny” and “somewhat entertaining” but said they did not film it. The traveller said: “'I was on a direct American flight from Phoenix to Austin and I was seated near the row where this situation occurred. As soon as he sat down, he was grumbling about something under his breath, like “f****** hell” or something”.

The author remembered the passenger was “audibly disgruntled about something, maybe hungover” after boarding the flight. After a majority of people were seated, the man said “you thought that was rude?” adding “how about this smell” and farted, according to the author. 

The author said it was “kinda funny to overhear” but it “was uncalled for especially coming from a grown man on an airplane”. A few passengers were having snacks or eating food when the passenger who reportedly farted said: “Yeah, everybody let’s just eat the smelliest food possible all at the same time”.

According to the author a male passenger who was seated nearby said: “If you don't like it you can fly private”. The disgruntled passenger reportedly replied with “that’s just so low class”. 

The author said flight attendants intervened as the flight was taxiing towards the runway. The plane came to a halt when the flight crew announced: “Apologies for the interruption, but we are returning to the gate. We will provide more information when we have it.”

As the flight returned to its gate, a flight attendant came back and informed the disgruntled passenger that he could not stay on the flight. The social media user posted: “He gets up, grabs his bag, and quietly exits the plane. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he was removed, I think most ppl were on edge about what he may say or do next. The trip was only delayed by 15-30 minutes, so all in all I think American handled it swiftly.”

A second person who claimed to be on the same flight wrote backed up the author that the incident happened. The second person wrote: “I ... can attest that it was a stinky flight! I didn’t know what started the ordeal but there were a lot of smells competing in there.”

NationalWorld has contacted American Airlines for comment.