We’ve become accustomed to airline’s throwing passengers off plane’s for refusing to wear a face mask in recent weeks but on this occasion, a budget carrier allegedly deplaned a passenger who asked a flight attendant to wear a face mask. The incident, onboard an Allegiant Air flight from Punta Gorda in Florida, ended with the elderly male passenger being refused travel despite other passengers calling the situation “ridiculous”.
Allegiant Air says there was a simple and fully justifiable reason for why the flight attendant had lowered her face covering.
In a statement, the airline explained that during the pre-flight safety demonstration a flight attendant had “briefly lowered their mask to speak into the public address microphone so that the announcement could be understood.” The spokesperson claims passengers had complained they couldn’t understand what was being said when the flight attendant tried to make the PA while wearing her face mask.
The elderly male passenger, however, allegedly broke FAA rules by “repeatedly and aggressively disrupting the preflight safety briefing”.
“That’s when the passenger became disruptive,” the spokesperson continued. “This was not an ‘ask.’ The flight attendant’s mask was back in place immediately following the announcement.”
An attempt to argue his case with the Captain proved fruitless and the passenger ended up being escorted off the aircraft.
Allegiant was one of the last U.S.-based airlines to require passengers to wear face masks, only introducing the policy in July. The airline has, though, “strongly encouraged” passengers to wear a covering since early May and requires all customer-facing employees to wear a face mask.
