American Airlines Passenger Accosted by Flight Attendant Speaks Out

Tiania Fough was boarding her connecting flight home to Oregon when she was abruptly kicked off her American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL)  flight. During an interview with FOX Business Network’s Sandra Smith, Fough shared her side of the story.

“I start to walk on like everybody else and I’m chatting with the lady in front of me. As her and kind of four other people in front of me make their seats, there [was] one flight attendant and me… we are probably about 5 seats away from each other and he just starts yelling at me… and at that point I was just like ‘oh my gosh, what’s going on?’ and I just looked over at this guy and the flight attendant says to me, ‘I asked you three times to stay right there’ and I looked over at the guy and he goes, ‘well obviously you didn’t hear him’… There was people in front of me I had no visual sight of the man until everybody had sat down.”

The scene, captured on a cell phone from another passenger, showed Fough being scolded and suddenly being removed from the plane while crying.

“I didn’t do anything, so basically they were like oh my gosh… how are they kicking this lady off. She literally was boarding the plane like every other passenger -- and this guy was just attacking me verbally,” she said.

When asked why she thought the flight attendant took issue with her she said: “there could be a lot of stuff going on in his life maybe. There was another flight attendant I guess up in the first class that I never even made contact with -- I never even talked to him... He is allegedly saying that I said some profanities to him and he is trying to cover up for his buddy’s mistake of blowing up in my face and kicking me off the plane.”

She said American Airlines reached out with an apology and explained management would handle the situation internally.

“They did offer me a $250 voucher… it’s kind of like what are my rights here, you know?  Can anyone just get kicked off a plane for doing nothing wrong? And that’s a scary thought,” she said.

Fough said she is currently seeking a lawyer.