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A viral TikTok said a woman refusing to wear a mask delayed a flight for 3 hours

Sep 8, 2021, 22:34 IST
Insider
Inside JetBlue Airways' new Airbus A321neoLR. Thomas Pallini/Insider
  • A viral TikTok alleged a woman was removed from a plane after refusing to wear a mask.
  • JetBlue told Insider the woman had been slipping in and out of consciousness.
  • The creator said JetBlue gave passengers $100 credit for the incident.
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A viral TikTok alleged that a woman's refusal to wear a face mask delayed a JetBlue flight for three hours, but the airline told Insider the customer was assisted off the aircraft after appearing to slip in and out of consciousness.

A JetBlue representative said they could not verify whether the person declined to wear a mask but confirmed the incident had delayed the flight.

The clip, which was posted on August 24 by journalist Brooklyn DeGumbia, has amassed over 1.2 million views and 157,000 likes.

The 42-second TikTok shows a security guard pushing a woman in a wheelchair out of the door to an airplane jetway and through an airport terminal. It then cuts to a scene taken earlier on the airplane, when someone who appeared to be a security guard spoke to a person whose face was censored.

"I haven't done anything," the censored person could be heard saying. "This is insane."

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"We can talk about this off the aircraft," the person who appeared to be a guard replied, adding that they would have to take everyone else off the airplane if the person in question did not comply and leave the plane.

The incident occurred on an August 24 JetBlue flight from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Hartford, Connecticut, as first reported by the Daily Dot. DeGumbia provided a screenshot of her boarding pass to Insider.

DeGumbia has over 3,000 followers on the platform.

DeGumbia told Insider that the incident began after the woman repeatedly refused to keep her mask up and kept pulling it down whenever flight attendants were not nearby. Medics came on the airplane after the woman said she was going through menopause, DeGumbia said.

"Passengers were yelling for her to put 'on the fucking mask' while officials were on the plane but she didn't listen," DeGumbia alleged to Insider.

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Masks are required for passengers two years old and above on all JetBlue flights in accordance with federal law, according to JetBlue's website, which also states that people who refuse to comply with the policy may be removed from the aircraft or denied boarding.

The JetBlue spokesperson told Insider they could not confirm the allegations related to face masks but said that a customer was assisted by emergency medical technicians and law enforcement officials off the flight after appearing incoherent and falling in and out of consciousness.

JetBlue gave passengers a $100 credit for the incident, DeGumbia said. Insider reviewed a screenshot of the credit email purportedly received by DeGumbia and other customers, which was sent from JetBlue on August 25 and listed "Customer Goodwill" as the type of travel credit.

JetBlue did not respond to Insider's request for confirmation of the $100 voucher.

Read more stories from Insider's Digital Culture desk.

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