A Delta passenger who was filmed ranting in support of President-elect Donald Trump has been banned from the airline for life.
The man, who was on flight 248 traveling from Atlanta to Allentown, Pennsylvania, last Tuesday, began yelling at other passengers: “Ain’t nobody going to say no shit on this plane?… Donald Trump, baby… We got some Hillary bitches on here? Come on, baby. Trump!”
“It’s your president. Every goddam one of you,” the passenger continued. “If you don’t like it, too bad.”
Today, the airline published a company-wide internal memo from CEO Ed Bastian. He noted that team members initially questioned the passenger and allowed him to stay on the flight, but had they witnessed his behavior in the video firsthand, they would have removed him.
.@Delta CEO writes memo to staff over intimidation from Trump-supporting passenger: “He will never again be allowed on a Delta plane.” pic.twitter.com/DMJwneg0a5
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 28, 2016
“There is no question they would have removed him from the aircraft,” Bastian wrote. “He will never again be allowed on a Delta plane.”
The video was uploaded to Facebook by Emma Baum and quickly circulated in the days following the flight. Baum, a 21-year-old from Belize who was flying to visit her family in Pennsylvania, told the Morning Call she first noticed the man in the airport terminal when he chanted “Make America great again” several times.
Though Baum was initially seated next to the man, she switched seats with someone behind her so he could sit next to the person he was traveling with. Just before takeoff, Baum told the man she had been away from the United States and asked him about the election. When he stood up to talk to her, she told him she would record him.
“He said, ‘Go ahead! I want to tell everyone about Trump. I hope it goes viral,’” Baum told the Morning Call.
The banned passenger has remained mostly unidentified through national coverage, though journalist Yashar Ali initially identified him in a Medium post. The post, however, has now been labeled as “under investigation.” Ali told the Daily Dot that his post violated Medium’s privacy violations, which includes posting personally identifying information.
On Saturday, Delta released a statement regarding the passenger, stating again that the customer should not have been allowed to stay on the flight:
“Our responsibility for ensuring all customers feel safe and comfortable with Delta includes requiring civil behavior from everyone… The behavior we see in this video does not square with our training or culture and follow-up will continue so we can better ensure our employees will know they will be fully supported to make the right decisions when these issues arise.”
In the most recent statement, Bastian wrote that Delta apologized to the passengers on flight 248 and is in the process of refunding their tickets.
“We also must remain committed more than ever to the safety of our customers and our crew members,” he wrote. “We will not tolerate anything less.”
