Traveler says a woman took her JetBlue seat to sit with her boyfriend, then threatened to cough on other passengers: ‘they are gonna need masks’
She says the crew handled it quietly and that the couple left the plane after a supervisor spoke with the woman.
A traveler says JetBlue crew told a woman she could not fly after she took the traveler’s aisle seat and loudly talked about coughing on nearby passengers. According to Upworthy, the traveler described flight B61530 to New York in a seven-part Threads post.
Gate agents had repeatedly urged passengers to use the seats on their tickets because the flight was sparse and balance mattered, the traveler states. At her row, a woman was already sitting in the aisle seat, next to a man at the window. The traveler writes that she first assumed an ordinary mix-up, since passengers sometimes misread their tickets.
Asked where her seat was, the woman immediately complained that she wanted to be with her boyfriend and added, “why can’t people just be nice.” The traveler calmly offered a swap, provided she kept an aisle and the crew agreed. The couple then moved to an empty row at the back. Crew members asked where they were assigned and told them to return.
The complaints did not stop
The boyfriend returned to the traveler’s row, muttering about $29 he had spent. Behind them, the woman took a middle seat and loudly stated, “I’m a germaphobe” and “I’m gonna be coughing all over these people, they are gonna need masks.” Both kept complaining loudly after sitting down. Being split from a partner on a flight draws attention online too, as a dad seated apart from family showed.
A flight attendant returned with a supervisor, and one of them asked the woman whether she was unwell, since she had talked about coughing on people around her. She denied having made the remark. The crew told her they needed a further discussion, and both she and her boyfriend left the plane. Removals do not always come down to behavior, as a family removed from a JetBlue flight over a canceled booking showed.
The traveler calls the handling fast and professional, and she guesses the passengers in the front rows may not have noticed. She calls the crew “kind and gracious in the face of nastiness” and adds that the airline should take pride in them and that the flight was lovely. Everything described above comes from the traveler’s own Threads post.
The Federal Aviation Administration states that interfering with the duties of a crew member violates federal law. It can propose up to $43,658 per violation in unruly passenger cases, and one incident can count as several violations. Under 14 CFR 121.580, no person may assault, threaten, intimidate or interfere with a crew member performing duties aboard an aircraft operated under Part 121.
The agency also has a zero-tolerance policy on unruly passenger behavior. It states that unruly incidents are referred to the FBI when warranted.
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