Pilot threatens to ‘evict people’ as Rowdy Trump supporters interrupt DC flight

Noisy supporters of President Donald Trump reportedly disrupted several flights in and out of Washington DC last week for protests that turned violent, prompting a pilot to threaten to “evict people” and flight attendants demanding a ban on riot participants.

An American Airlines pilot warned passengers shouting that he would land the plane and kick-start the angry Trump supporters when they returned to Phoenix after the Capitol riot on Wednesday. “This is going to be a four and a half hour flight to Phoenix. We are going to put this plane in the middle of Kansas and evict people. I don’t care,” the pilot told undisciplined Trump supporters. “We will do that, if necessary, so behave, please.”

According to the video recorded on the flight to Arizona, people could be heard mocking the pilot’s comments on the speaker and shouting back, “Behave yourself? What, are we in America?” Several passengers on the flight also bothered Republican Senator Lindsey Graham as a “piece of shit” inside Reagan National Airport near DC before taking off. A Trump supporter demanded to know why Graham was not auditing and overturning President-elect Joe Biden’s victory while security guards escorted him through the terminal.

Arizona resident Cliff Mansley, a passenger on the flight to Phoenix from Washington, told ABC-15 he did not like the fact that several other travelers had upset Graham at the airport before the flight left.

“He deserves our respect and was very respectful of me,” said Mansley, before detailing how poorly prepared the Capitol police were for Wednesday’s protests that ended up leaving five people dead. “I asked a police officer if I could cross the barrier that was on the floor and he shrugged and said, ‘why not?’ They were totally unprepared. It almost seemed too easy for the crazy people who went further, “Mansley told the local Arizona TV station.

A passenger on a third separate flight from Indianapolis to Washington said Newsweek his exhausted plane was full of Trump supporters who repeatedly refused requests from flight attendants to keep their masks over their faces. Tony Mace, a DC area resident and passenger aboard AA flight 4886, said on Saturday that “none” of the dozens of Trump supporters en route to Wednesday’s protests wore a mask inside the airport terminal.

Mace noted that most were “adorned with Trump equipment or military clothing,” and three pro-Trump passengers were allowed to board the plane without a mask.

“None of them sat there in masks. And no Indy airport official asked them to put one on,” said Mace. “I felt bad for the flight attendants because Trump supporters kept taking off their masks during the flight and the flight attendants kept telling me to put them back on.”

Graham was not the only Republican senator randomly approached this week. On a flight from Salt Lake City to Washington, DC, Utah Senator Mitt Romney was harassed by Trump supporters. The video recorded on the flight shows several people shouting “traitor” to Romney from several rows behind.

“We want to know your connections with Burisma and Joe Biden,” shouted a woman to Romney sitting a few rows in front of several passengers singing. “Your constituents want to know why you are going to certify the Electoral College!”

Newsweek contacted American Airlines for any additional comments on pro-Trump disruptions at airports and on board flights across the country this week.

The air travel problems caused by Trump protesters resonated when the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the country’s largest flight attendants union, issued a statement asking all U.S. airlines to prevent riot participants from participating in the riot. of future flights. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator, Dickson, issued a statement on Saturday promising to seek “strong coercive action”, with penalties ranging from monetary fines to imprisonment. “

Dickson said the FAA tracks all commercial passenger flights and has “mechanisms for crew members to identify any number of safety concerns that may arise during the flight. This includes the undisciplined behavior of the passenger, which can distract, disturb and threaten the ability of the crew to conduct their main safety functions. “

Trump himself had for weeks encouraged his most fervent supporters to organize “wild” protests in the nation’s capital last Wednesday. This occurred when a group of 12 Republican senators tried unsuccessfully to obstruct the Electoral College’s final count of Biden’s 306-232 victory over Trump.