February 14th’s flight 1288 from Southwest Airlines, going from Oakland, California to Lihue, Hawaii, might have had an upcharge for the dried-out meal, but the inflight entertainment was on the house. A seemingly simple verbal altercation between two men suddenly broke out into a full-fledged fistfight. With a swift response from fellow passengers and flight attendants, the men were separated.
Responding quickly, one passenger stepped in and, with a large dose of calm eye contact and de-escalation techniques, was able to calm the passenger and get him away. This seemed to calm the situation, as did the multiple other people who wanted to simply enjoy a calm flight and not pick sides on such an issue.
In response to the incident, Southwest Airlines told Fox News, “Our reports indicate that two customers became disruptive onboard Flight 1288 on Feb. 12 from Oakland to Lihue. We commend our crew and customers for their professionalism in diffusing this situation. Our No. 1 priority is the safety and well-being of our customers and employees. The flight landed safely at its scheduled destination and local authorities met the aircraft upon arrival.”
Disturbances like these are becoming more and more common. While no airline is exempt from having occasional dustups inside the plane, it seems to happen more frequently with coach-level passengers and on discount airlines. Companies like Spirit and Allegiant have each been called the unofficial street MMA Airline. Now it looks like Southwest might want a chance to become the UFA- Ultimate Fighting Airline.
