Watch: Woman removed from FlySafair flight after refusing to wear mask
A woman was removed – with great difficulty – from a flight on domestic airline FlySafair on Saturday 24 October after she failed to wear a mask and adhere to the safety protocols that have been mandated for air travel.
The woman was filmed ranting incessantly as she was told to leave the plane before it departed from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport, and launched a flurry of foul mouthed insults at flight staff and passengers, all the while coughing mockingly and screaming “everyone dies!”.
Watch: Woman marched off FlySafair flight
The woman pretended to cough on passengers as she reluctantly marched off the plane, and screamed at flight attendants.
“F**k off, everybody dies! Corona or not, everybody f***ing dies!” she yelled.
Airlines ‘risk losing operating licenses’ if safety measures aren’t enforced.
Flight FA288 was delayed on the runway due to the unpleasant incident, and passengers were visibly annoyed by the woman’s performance.
She was ultimately removed from the plane by responding members of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The South African has reached out to SAPS for further information about what charges the woman faces and will update this article when a response is forthcoming.
FlySafair Chief Marketing Officer Kirby Gordon said the airline will not compromise on COVID-19 regulations and put the lives of other passengers at risk.
He told SABC News that airlines risk losing their operating licenses should they not comply with the strict measures that have been put in place to ensure that COVID-19 is not spread on flights.
“After addressing a passenger he decided he still no longer wanted to wear his mask. So unfortunately we had to offload the passenger from the aircraft. SAPS were contacted and he was escorted off by SAPS,” he said.
“It’s absolutely imperative, if we don’t follow the regulations we stand the risk of losing our operating licence. And at this stage wearing a mask in public and on an aircraft is as much a law as anything else so we have to treat it the same way as if an individual were to sit down and light a cigarette or refuse to wear their seatbelt,” says Gordon.
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