Plane diverted to remove passenger after he calls flight attendant ‘waiter’

An American Airlines plane returned to the airport it had departed from after a passenger onboard called a flight attendant “waiter”.

The flight bound for Georgetown, Guyana, turned back to New York City’s JFK International Airport after only two hours because of an incident involving what the airline described as a “disruptive passenger”, according to Guayana’s Stabroek News.

The passenger was identified as Joel Ghansham, who the newspaper describes as a “Guyanese cultural activist”.

Mr Ghansham took to YouTube to share his version of events, with the a caption on the video reading: “What really went down?”.

Mr Ghansham, who said he was travelled in business class, denied that he was disruptive and claimed that the episode started when he asked a flight attendant to help him put his bags in the overhead luggage compartment as he had recently undergone surgery.

“He was like ‘I don’t do that, I don’t get paid for that,’" alleged Mr Ghansham, who added that another employee apologised and did help him.

The flight attendant who had allegedly refused to assist Mr Ghansham asked the passenger, around an hour into the flight, if he wanted anything to drink, to which Mr Ghansham said he replied: “No thank you, waiter.”

In the video, Mr Ghansham claimed the flight attendant told him he wasn’t a waiter but “had the power to turn the plane [around]” – to which Mr Ghansham said he replied: “You must be God, so you do it.”

Soon after, the pilot announced over the loudspeaker that the plane was returning to New York. According to reports, Mr Ghansham was met by a police officer when the aircraft landed and was interviewed by an agent from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Mr Ghansham has denied that any argument took place and claims he was not disruptive. He said: “There was not a disruption. I never got up. There was not an argument, there was not a confrontation, nobody touched each other. He was wearing a mask. He wasn’t even loud. It was just his pride.”

A spokesperson for American Airlines told The Independent: “American Airlines flight 2557, with service from New York (JFK) to Georgetown, Guyana (GEO), returned   to JFK on Tuesday due to a disruptive customer. Safety and security are our top priorities, and we thank our customers for their understanding and our team members for their professionalism in managing a difficult situation.”