Florida Cops Called for Anti-Masker Couple’s Racist Airline Meltdown
A Trump-supporting, anti-masker couple captured in a viral video spewing racist and homophobic abuse on a JetBlue flight on Sunday were kicked off the tarmac in Florida but were not charged, according to officials.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office sent The Daily Beast an incident report Tuesday that said Madelein Kelly and her unidentified partner, both from New Jersey, were escorted off the JetBlue flight and out of the West Palm Beach Airport on Sunday afternoon. (Kelly, a former Broadway dancer, appears to spell her name as Madeleine.)
In a video that made the rounds first on TikTok before being deleted and uploaded by a user on Reddit, a woman—Kelly—is seen having a heated discussion with a flight attendant.
While it’s not clear what started the squabble, the clip begins with a Black flight attendant urging the woman to leave, and the woman telling him, “You don’t like the words coming out of my mouth. Free speech is dead!”
The woman, who is sitting in the middle seat on the right side of the plane and is not wearing a face mask, vehemently insists that she and the unmasked man next to her didn’t do anything wrong. She refuses to get off the plane when the attendant suggests it.
“Then, you’re going to have to take everyone off,” she tells the attendant. “This is ridiculous.”
After the attendant walks away, the woman still berates him and the passengers sitting across the aisle, all of whom are wearing masks.
“Do you guys see what’s happening in America? He didn’t like what we said, and now we’re getting kicked off the plane. And all of you all are going to have to wait. This is fucking outrageous. You guys, we’re going to turn into China—it’s coming,” she says.
After making sheep sounds and calling other passengers sheep for wearing masks, the woman shouts, “I love Elon Musk. He is the best. Elon! He is the fucking king! The mask people in our row are kicking us off the plane.”
She then points at each person around her, claiming she’s going to sue them, then threatens to sue the airline. People around her laugh.
As a self-proclaimed former Broadway dancer, the woman brags that she has plenty of free time and won’t be getting vaccinated. The New York Times reported Kelly was the director-choreographer of the 2007 musical The Glorious Ones, in which the cast performed a number of sketch comedy gags onstage. She was a guest instructor at the Carolyn Dutra Dance Studio, according to the company’s Facebook page.
After threatening to sue the airline, Kelly declares, “I’m not getting that fucking vaccine. We did nothing!” Despite sitting in coach, her partner boasts he has more money than the passengers sitting across the aisle.
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Then, the woman directs the camera toward a masked man sitting in an aisle seat to her left, ranting, “You’re the reason we’re getting kicked off. Now, I got your face.”
“Got your face, f—--t,” her partner chimes in.
The couple vocally expresses their love for one another. The partner, who Kelly refers to as “Gene,” tells her he wants to get off the plane. But she’s not having it—even when security attempts to unbuckle the man.
“I’m retired FBI,” the man claims. “I know my rights.”
After security leaves, the woman exclaims to the rest of the plane that it’s their anniversary. Meanwhile, “Gene” shouts homophobic slurs at passengers and crosses his arms in toddler-like fashion to prevent security from moving him. Eventually, the pilot makes an announcement that the entire plane has to get off and re-board due to a couple of passengers not cooperating with crew members.
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“What did we do?” the woman keeps shouting.
“You make me sick,” the man identified as “Gene” says to another passenger.
“We gotta get off the plane because we’re Trump supporters,” the woman rants. “I think that’s what it is.”
In another video from another user uploaded on Vimeo, people boo as the couple are escorted through the airport with security. The woman attempts to yell back at everyone, but security stops her and keeps her moving.
According to the Palm Beach incident report, the couple were not charged with any offenses and were led out of the airport where they waited for a ride to pick them up. JetBlue did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
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