A woman aboard a Southwest flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles was forcibly detained on Tuesday after demanding two dogs be removed from the plane after claiming she was “deathly allergic.”
The altercation, which was caught on cameras and shared to social media shows the woman being removed from the flight by two police officers as she yells, “Don’t touch me.” At one point she accuses the officers of “ripping her pants.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
CBS Los Angeles reports that when the woman, who is currently unidentified, did not provide a medical certificate stating she could travel safely after discovering the airline had two dogs aboard the flight, one of which was a service dog. Due to not having proper certification though, she was then asked to leave.
Bill Dumas, who shot the cellphone footage told the news agency that law enforcement spent a lot of time talking to her, explaining they would work out the situation as the pilot “wouldn’t leave until it got resolved.”
However, as officers removed the woman with force, Dumas says she insisted she was trying to get to her father’s surgery.
“If you look at the police, they were being overly aggressive. Really, she wasn’t giving them much of a choice, and the people on the plane were saying, ‘Just get off the plane,’” he said.
Southwest Airlines issued a statement Wednesday saying how “disheartened” they were by the way events unfolded and the “customer’s removal by local law enforcement officers.”
“We publicly offer our apologies to this Customer for her experience and we will be contacting her directly to address her concerns,” the statement read.
They went on to defend their policy that states, “a customer (without a medical certificate) may be denied boarding if they report a life-threatening allergic reaction and cannot travel safely with an animal on board.
“Our Flight Crew made repeated attempts to explain the situation to the Customer, however, she refused to deplane and law enforcement became involved,” Southwest Airlines said.
