AUSTIN, Texas — A United Airlines pilot was removed from an Austin, Texas, to San Francisco flight Saturday evening, a spokesman for United Airlines confirmed.
United Airlines spokesman Charlie Hobart confirmed that the pilot was removed from United Airlines Flight 455.
“We hold our employees to the highest standards and we removed that pilot from that flight,” he said. “We brought in a new crew and they operated that flight.”
The pilot boarded the flight dressed in regular clothes, he confirmed.
According to multiple reports on Twitter from passengers, the pilot went on a "rant" about her divorce, President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and also started crying.
Randy Reiss, a passenger on the flight, tweeted about the flight and described the situation as scary. On Twitter, Reiss said the pilot told those on board that she was going through a divorce and began crying during the incident.
So, y'all. I'm shaking right now. I just left my @united flight 455 'cos the captain demonstrated that she was not mentally in a safe space.
— Randy Reiss (@undeadsinatra) February 11, 2017
Reiss told the Austin American-Statesman via Twitter that he believed the pilot was not in “the mental space today to take that on.”
A video uploaded to YouTube – then later deleted – appeared to show a portion of what the pilot said to passengers.
In the video, the pilot said: “Don’t worry, I’m going to let my co-pilot fly it (the airplane). He’s a man,” she said.
“If you don’t feel safe, get off the airplane. But otherwise, we can go,” the pilot told passengers over the intercom.
After that comment, a man in the video appeared to get up and request to get off of the airplane.
The pilot then asked passengers if she offended them.
The flight was scheduled to depart Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at 5:02 p.m., according to KVUE News.
The flight’s departure was delayed for about two hours due to the incident, Hobart said.
“We removed her from the flight, (and) we’re going to discuss this matter with her,” he said. “We were looking out for our customers to get them to where they needed to be.”
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