Why, oh why, do people feel they can act any kind of way on a plane without consequences? When will they realize that flying is a privilege, not a right? Thirdly, don’t folks know that at least one person is sure to whip out their phone, record the foolishness and post it online?
A man identified as Zachary Easterly got instant comeuppance after hurling verbal abuse on an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas.
In a video posted on Twitter, the man rants away, pacing up and down the aisle and dropping F-bombs like there’s no tomorrow. And by that, we mean the expletive and the derogatory term for gay men.
Meanwhile, a Black crew member with the patience of a saint calmly tells him, “sir, come and grab your bag. Come and grab your bag.”
“What do you want?” the man snaps at her, likely intoxicated.
“For you to grab your bag so you can get off the plane,” the Black woman replies.
Easterly claims that his bag is “a Swedish f*cking bag” that’s out of the price range of most. After saying that the bag is black he says, “I’m a white male that picked a black bag ’cause I’m racist.”
Another flight attendant is seen opening various overheard compartments until the bag is found. The Black woman repeatedly asks if that’s Easterly’s only bag. His response consists of a fresh round of F bombs and he demands to know if he’ll be compensated for the inconvenience nobody caused but him. She tells him “no.”
“I’ll get off the f*cking plane with all you liberal f*ggots!” Easterly exclaims as he finally starts to exit. He then says he hopes it crashes and declares, “I’m a chemical engineer. I work for GlaxoSmithKline and I’m about to quit!” He challenges other passengers to complain to the company if they wish, since he was planning to quit anyway.
The way the internet works, his site of employment would have been discovered even if he hadn’t outed himself. His employer fired him promptly and issued the following statement:
“On Wednesday, GSK was notified of an incident involving an employee on a flight to Dallas. We immediately conducted an investigation and as of Thursday, he is no longer employed at GSK. The person’s behavior was reprehensible and does not reflect our company culture.”
A Twitter user named Floyd Zuber summed up the general sentiment: “they should’ve kicked him off at 40,000 feet.”