Oh My: Frustrated American Airlines Passenger Tackled By Flight Attendant

Several readers have brought this incident to my attention, as it seems to be getting a lot of attention in Brazil. I don’t really know what to say, other than “oy vey.”

American Airlines passenger approaches flight deck, finds out

This incident happened on Thursday, April 24, 2025, and involves American flight AA950, operated by a Boeing 787-9, and scheduled to fly from Sao Paulo (GRU) to New York (JFK). The late night flight was delayed by a little over two hours on departure.

While the plane was on the ground, one of the passengers (an older lady) became frustrated and decided to approach the flight deck, to confront the pilot about the delay, demanding an explanation. Right at the flight deck door (which was open), a flight attendant tackled her, and threw her to the ground.

From there, the situation escalated with verbal abuse, including the passenger using homophobic slurs against the flight attendant. At least four passengers were reportedly removed from the flight.

Couldn’t this situation have been deescalated?!

Obviously some details here are murky, but based on everything I’ve read, this lady was awful and entitled. She reportedly used phrases like “you’re going to get screwed” and “do you know who you’re talking to” (translated from Portuguese). So yeah, she sounds quite unpleasant, no doubt.

At the same time, is it really necessary to tackle someone while an aircraft is on the ground, and the flight deck door is open? It doesn’t seem that she physically threatened anyone, or posed any sort of a risk to anyone’s safety. Of course no one should approach or enter the flight deck without permission, but it’s not like the plane was in the air.

Deescalation is a skill that many flight attendants unfortunately lack, and this seems to be one of those cases…

Bottom line

An American Airlines flight out of Sao Paulo was delayed by a couple of hours, and one passenger grew annoyed, and decided to approach the flight deck for answers. This resulted in her being tackled by a flight attendant, and being thrown to the ground. The woman sounds terrible, and made some pretty unsavory comments. But is this kind of a response warranted?

What do you make of this incident?