Flight Attendant Tells Passenger to ‘Shut Up’ After Argument Over Pasta
The airline says it is reviewing the incident internally.
— -- A midflight dustup over pasta boiled over earlier this month when a flight attendant told a passenger to shut up — an incident that was caught on camera.
The spaghetti spat erupted on an American Airlines flight from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to Miami on June 5, when the crew ran out of pasta for business class customers, according to passenger Ra Nath.
Nath tells ABC News he asked a flight attendant why his row, the second row of the section, was served last. According to the passenger, the flight attendant then became aggressive.
“I just wanted to know why my row got asked last. I mean, I was in the second rows of business class, and the rows behind me and in front of me were asked,” the passenger wrote in a blog post. “That is no order that makes sense in my mind.”
Nath tells ABC News that the flight attendant attempted to explain to him that the meals depend on the direction of the plane and to “do your research.”
At one point, Nath began to record with his camera, asking the flight attendant for his name.
“Shut up and don’t talk to me again, OK?” the flight attendant said, according to the video. “If you talk to me again, I tell the cops, and you get arrested in Miami.”
In the video, a person, apparently Nath, can be heard repeatedly asking for the flight attendant’s name.
Nath was not detained and says another flight attendant spoke with him.
“There was a female flight attendant who was also taking care of business class, and she was so friendly and understanding. She apologized on his behavior, and we talked about the whole experience. She was exactly the type of flight attendant that is ideal for a situation like that,” Nath says.
Regarding his initial question, Nath says, “Maybe I could have asked in a nicer way, but I wasn’t aggressive like he was.”
An American Airlines spokesman told ABC News that it is reviewing the incident internally.
ABC News’ Casey Decker contributed to this story.