Passenger says couple removed from Pittsburgh flight after refusing to wear mask

PITTSBURGH — On a packed flight Friday night, a man and woman were kicked off their plane allegedly because the woman did not want to wear her mask properly.

This incident happened just after 8 p.m. at Pittsburgh International Airport before the flight departed for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sarah Green was a passenger on the flight that saw the whole encounter two rows in front of her.

“Essentially, two passengers were escorted off the plane because the woman wasn’t wearing her mask and kind of refused to keep it on,” Green explained.

Green says the flight attendants repeatedly asked the woman to wear her mask the right way, but she refused and instead argued with them.

“She kind of put her middle finger up towards the flight attendant. It was really rude. So they just came over and escorted them off the plane,” Green explained.

This comes just days after another mask dilemma happened on a Southwest Airlines flight, where a group of women told us they were thrown off their return flight from West Palm Beach to Pittsburgh.

We contacted Southwest, and they sent us a statement saying in part:

“Our reports indicate this customer was not wearing a mask properly on multiple occasions while onboard the aircraft.”

According to the New York Times, the Federal Aviation Administration said there had been a disturbing increase in the number of reports of unruly airline passengers since the easing of travel restrictions. The surge comes as travelers clash with airline crews over mask-wearing rules.

We reached out to Spirit Airlines several times. We contacted them Friday night and Monday afternoon, but we have yet to get a response back regarding this particular incident.

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