Woman kicked off plane for screaming about seat near baby
The original video has more than 1.8 million views on Facebook alone, each one of them a hard lesson for Marissa Rundell.
She filmed a woman who allegedly yelled at Rundell and her baby during boarding on a Feb. 6 Delta flight from New York to Syracuse, New York The woman was taken off the plane, and Rundell’s video, posted on Facebook for her family to see, soon rocketed across social media and garnered coverage in newspapers.
But now Rundell regrets recording Susan Peirez, who has been suspended upon review at her New York state government job.
“I kind of feel bad for this lady. I don’t know her story, she doesn’t know mine. It might have been a misunderstanding,” Rundell, 19, told the business publication Inc. in a recent interview. “I posted it before we even took off. I thought, my family’s going to want to see this. By the time we landed my entire family had seen it.”
A brief confrontation occurred before Rundell began to film, she said. Peirez used obscenities when complaining about being in the back of the plane. “I said, please don’t use that language in front of my son, and she didn’t even recognize I was there. She started swearing again,” Rundell said.
After another request to keep her language family-friendly, Peirez reportedly said, “Shut up and shove it.” Peirez could not be reached for comment.
Shortly after, Rundell started recording as Peirez is shown moving about the aisle and row of seats opposite Rundell. She invoked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and threatened to have the flight attendant fired. Peirez had asked to sit farther away from the “crying baby” – who was not heard crying in the video – before she was ultimately removed from the plane.