Copyright Men's Journal
Passengers on what should have been a routine United Airlines flight from Des Moines, Iowa to Chicago got a lot more than they bargained for Monday, according to reports. The plane was delayed four hours after two flight attendants got into an altercation before takeoff, Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported. Details on what led to the fight have not been reported yet, but Paddle Your Own Kanoo and One Mile At A Time confirmed that United’s internal messaging acknowledged an incident had taken place. “Disagreement on 2 of the FAs [Flight Attendants]. IFDM [Inflight Duty Manager] pulling all crew and will need to recrew flight,” the system message said. Because of the fact the entire aircraft had to be deplaned and a new crew formed, the flight, which was scheduled to depart at 11:26 a.m. local time, had to be pushed back. The flight finally departed at 3:24 p.m. and landed at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago at 5:09 p.m. ET, an arrival delay of four hours and 12 minutes. Flight crew conflicts are rare, but they do happen Thankfully, we don’t often see flights delayed because of confrontations between crew members. That would certainly be a disaster for the air travel industry. However, the incident that happened on Monday’s United Airlines flight has precedent. In July 2022, a beef between Alaska Airlines pilots led to a delay, and in 2023, two SkyWest flight attendants got into it, with both refusing to work together and leaving the plane in an ordeal that was chronicled on TikTok by ESPN anchor Ashley Brewer.
