While the footage is causing outrage on social media, the airline is standing by their pilot — crediting him with de-escalating the situation between the two passengers.
The incident took place at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 21. In the footage, two women are seen trading blows and fighting on the ground before the pilot steps in and takes a swing.
As he moves away from the altercation, a third woman joins the scuffle, kicking the women before sitting on one of them.
Following the encounter, the pilot was immediately suspended, but he has since returned to work. Delta officials told the National Post in a statement that “his actions de-escalated an altercation between passengers.”
Airlines in the US have almost become their own reality television show, with all their scandals over the past few weeks.
In another incident on April 9, United Airlines sparked global outrage after 69-year-old Dr. David Dao was violently dragged from his flight after the airline overbooked tickets.
Dao was brutalized while attempting to fly from O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, in an incident that was caught on video that immediately went viral. The doctor, a paying customer, had been told he was being removed from the flight to make room for crew members who needed to board. When Dao refused to leave the plane, he was violently dragged off by his wrists.
Dao, who came to the US in 1975, described the incident as more terrifying than his experience fleeing Vietnam over three decades ago.
