‘I hope you get eaten by an alligator!’ Man kicked off plane in Florida for no mask
Another meltdown over masks on a plane caused a major travel disruption.
A passenger on a JetBlue flight last Saturday from New York to Cancun refused to wear a mask and led the pilot to change course. Passenger Lawrence Redick IV, 22, caught a snippet of the action and posted it on TikTok after the plane was diverted to Fort Lauderdale.
The New Yorker’s video shows a flight attendant standing next to the now masked passenger. People heckle the man, screaming “Let’s go, get up, let’s go,” and “Boo!”
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On Redick’s now viral TikTok, Siri is heard reading his text: “All this just because of one person, it’s so frustrating.” Passengers yell and boo and hurl insults as two uniformed officers escort the man off the aircraft.
Right before he exits in Florida, a man screams, “I hope you get eaten by an alligator!”
Redick told the Miami Herald that the plane was delayed on the Fort Lauderdale airport tarmac for about an hour and a half.
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JetBlue’s website states that face coverings are required inside all airport terminals and for the flight for those 2 and older due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An airline spokesman sent a statement about the incident to the Miami Herald:
“On February 27, JetBlue flight 751 with scheduled service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Cancun, Mexico, was forced to divert to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when a customer became aggressive and threatening toward our crewmembers and other customers after being asked multiple times to comply with JetBlue’s face mask policy and the federal mask mandate,” it said. “The customer was eventually escorted off by law enforcement in Fort Lauderdale. The flight continued to Cancun without further incident. The safety of our customers and crewmembers is our first priority at JetBlue, and the customer in question is not welcome to fly JetBlue in the future.”
It is unclear whether the maskless man was arrested or was allowed to travel to his next destination.
