American Airlines allegedly threatens to kick elderly woman off a plane for ‘mask violation’

On Thursday evening, Republican strategist Andrew Surabian allegedly witnessed one of these incidents aboard an American Airlines flight.

According to Surabian, and elderly woman on the flight put her mask down briefly but proceeded to immediately put the mask back on. A flight attendant allegedly threatened to kick the woman off the flight.

The elderly woman allegedly begged to be allowed to remain onboard. According to Surabian, she explained to the flight attendant that she was traveling to see her 95 year old father who was on his deathbed.

Surabian wrote that the flight attendant responded that she did not feel comfortable with the elderly woman on the flight and began lecturing her "in the rudest most condescending tone you could ever imagine."

Though the flight attendant eventually allowed the woman to remain aboard, it was not until after she allegedly humiliated the woman who was in tears and made her repeat "I will keep my mask on" several times.

Surabian tweeted after the plane landed that as he was disembarking the aircraft an American Airlines employee allegedly pulled him aside with copies of his tweets printed out. Surabian was allegedly told by the employee that "per top of corporate, they were launching a full investigation." According to Surabian he gave the representative his version of the incident and the employee allegedly acknowledged that it was unacceptable. Surabian allegedly witnessed the representative apologize to the elderly woman as he was leaving the area.

Surabian and the airline could not be reached for comment but American Airlines did tweet a response to Surabian following the incident, "Thank you for chatting with our airport manager. We appreciate the opportunity to turn this around for the customer."

This is a developing story.