Passengers on the London-bound American Airlines flight that returned to Miami Wednesday night after a woman refused to wear a face mask claim the first-class traveler appeared to be inebriated and refused every mask offered to her by the flight crew.
'There was a lot of drinking involved and I was nervous,' Steve Freeman, who was a front row witness to the incident, told WPLG Thursday. 'She sat behind us in first class — she was a first-class passenger and was extremely abusive to the stewards.'
'She tried loads of different masks, complained about each mask.'
In a statement, the airline said Flight 38, which had been in the air for almost two hours, turned around due to a 'disruptive customer refusing to comply with the federal mask requirement'.
Freeman, who was traveling home to London, alleged the decision to turn the flight around was not just about the mask, but more so about the way she treated the flight crew. He claims the stewards made several attempts at getting the woman to follow protocols.
'We almost felt something was going to happen. I could see the writing on the wall — they gave her a lot of warnings, so we were kind of ready for it,' he recalled. 'It wasn't just about the mask. It was the abusive behavior.'
He was stunned the woman was not placed in custody, saying: 'I can't see what more would constitute grounds for arrest.'
Steve (right) and Teresa Freeman (left) were shocked police did not arrest the first-class American Airlines passenger whose apparently drunken actions caused a London-bound flight to return to Miami. The unruly passenger, a woman in her 40s, is accused of refusing to wear a face covering and being 'extremely abusive' towards the flight crew
American Airlines said there were 129 passengers and 14 crew members on the plane. Pilots turned the Boeing 777 around less than an hour into the transatlantic flight and the flight was canceled as a result of the incident.
'On the tracker, I was watching the flight and I saw the flight turn and I said to [Steve] "I think the flight's going back,"' Teresa Freeman recalled on Thursday. 'It was about maybe 15 minutes later the announcement came.'
The airline called Miami-Dade police and once the plane landed and officers escorted the woman, who was in her 40s, off of the plane.
A police spokesperson said American Airlines staff dealt
