Southwest Passenger Kicked off Flight over a Mask Compares herself to Rosa Parks
Mar. 31—A woman traveling out of Dallas Love Field was escorted off a Southwest flight after refusing to wear a mask Wednesday.
TikTok video circulating on social media shows the woman repeating that she wasn't wearing a mask because she was eating and drinking. The woman was confronted by a flight attendant and after refusing to put on a mask, was told she would be taken off the flight.
Other passengers grew visibly frustrated and began asking the woman questions about why she refused to mask up prior to an announcement that all passengers would be required to get off the flight and re-board.
In the video, the maskless woman compares herself to Rosa Parks and Anne Frank.
"It probably didn't make sense to Rosa either," the woman said to another passenger on the flight. "It didn't make sense for Anne Frank either."
A spokesperson for Southwest said that the flight was traveling to Long Beach, California, and arrived nearly two hours late because of the incident.
"The non-compliant passenger was denied boarding and refunded for her Southwest travel," the spokesperson added. "We apologize for the inconvenience as worked to ensure all customers were compliant with the federal mask mandate."
A letter from leaders at Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and United requested that President Biden lift the mask mandate, NPR reported last week.
"It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do," the letter said, according to NPR.
The mandate remains in effect until April 18. Flight attendant unions have called for the mandate to be lifted because of the difficulty of enforcing it with unruly passengers.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 11:51 AM.
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