A US television anchor on-board a flight from Los Angeles to Houston posted a now-viral clip showing cabin crew in a heated exchange, before one stormed off, delaying the flight.
ESPN Sports Centre anchor Ashley Brewer, who described the argument as “petty”, was on the SkyWest flight on Tuesday, eager to visit her partner.
But the flight was delayed by two hours due to the incident where a male and female flight attendant were bickering about whether to let someone in first class switch seats with someone in economy.
“Guys. My flight can’t take off because two flight attendants got in a fight and now are REFUSING to work together. Now we’re delayed. We’re sitting here waiting for them to talk it out but nope! Lady won’t budge. She reopened the door and all … I can’t believe this is real life,” Brewer wrote on Twitter.
She also shared footage of the clip to her TikTok explaining that while the male flight attendant approved the seat swap, his co-worker told him it was against SkyWest’s policy, sparking the debate.
The airline reportedly only allows people to swap seats up to 72 hours before takeoff.
“They kept bickering and going back and forth in the middle of the aisle about the rules, and what was right and what was wrong,” Brewer said.
The anchor, who comically filmed herself eating popcorn as she watched on, added the male flight attendant then started to yell at the female worker before she ran to the front of the plane and started to cry.
The male flight attendant could be seen getting off the plane first – and an hour later the female cabin crew staffer followed.
“So then we just sat down and waited and waited and waited,” Brewer said. “And it was a whole big thing. They had the flight crew come on, the pilots came out and tried to talk through [it]. It was such an ordeal. And I’m so glad it’s over.”
She told followers in the comments section the new crew were “so sweet and happy” – but the ordeal left her frustrated.
“I only get to see my fiance for 24 hours. It’s now 22,” describing the fight as ‘petty’.
Social media users were shocked by the incident with one saying they had “ never heard this happening before”.
“Me neither! We were all staring at each other like this is not happening,” Brewer replied.
SkyWest said in a statement to CNBC News that it was aware of the incident and has launched an investigation into the matter.
“We regret the delay this caused for our passengers and apologise for any inconvenience. We hold all our employees to the highest standards of professionalism and are conducting an internal investigation related to this flight.”
Meanwhile, many were eager to know whether the passengers got to swap seats in the end, to which brewer responded: “Nope! They were super cool about it though, they asked once and dropped it. The employers on the other hand…”
In a separate comment, she said: “We’ve all worked with people we don’t like. But there’s a job to be done!”
According to CNN, FlightAware data showed the flight was delayed by one hour and took off from Los Angeles International Airport at 2.04pm local time before it landed in Houston around 7pm local time.
