Southwest passenger's outburst over crying baby caught on camera

The passenger began shouting and arguing with flight attendants.

April 20, 2023, 11:40 AM

In a midair meltdown caught on tape, a passenger's outburst on a Southwest Airlines flight forced police to meet the plane when it landed.

After a baby started crying on the plane for an extended period of time, a passenger demanded flight attendants do something about it before yelling himself.

In video shot by a passenger on the plane, the flight attendant can be seen telling the adult male passenger, "Sir, you are yelling."

PHOTO: A Southwest Airlines flight is seen on Feb. 24, 2023.
A Southwest Airlines flight is seen on Feb. 24, 2023.
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE

The passenger responded, "So is the baby!'

"OK, you're a man," the attendant replied.

The meltdown of epic proportions had flight attendants pleading with the man to stop yelling.

"Let’s be rational for a second," a flight attendant asked the man, who continued to yell, "NO! NO!"

"There is nothing we can do ... it’s a baby!" the flight attendant said in response.

Monique Pass was on the Southwest flight when the chaos ensued.

"All of a sudden, this guy was just screaming on the top of his lungs. It was definitely a good 5 minutes or so, and it was just getting worse and worse and worse," Pass said.

The man was also caught on camera saying, "You want me to scream? You want me to scream? I'll f------ scream. Please stop the baby," he said.

The Southwest flight bound for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, diverted to Orlando, Florida, because of weather and all of the flight's passengers had to be deplaned.

The man who screamed on the flight was met by police officers at the gate.

In a statement, Southwest Airlines said, “We commend our crew for exhibiting outstanding professionalism while handling a challenging situation and we appreciate the patience of our other customers onboard who had to experience the behavior.”

Aviation analyst and ABC News contributor John Nance said the extreme outburst is an example of what not to do on a flight.

"I think the No. 1 thing to say here is that even though our crews handle these things as diplomatically as they can, at the end result, if you don't sit down and close your mouth and stop doing whatever it is you are doing, you are going to be hauled off by police at the other end," Nance said.

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