Too smelly to fly: Passenger's rude fart delays American Airlines plane

A farting, belligerent passenger did the walk of shame when he was removed from an American Airlines flight.

The smelly situation occurred during an early evening flight on January 14 from the Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport in Arizona to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, various US media outlets reported.

A passenger who was on the flight took to the platform Reddit to describe what happened, saying the passenger had deliberately passed gas and was also rude to fellow passengers, prompting the crew to return to the gate from the runway instead of taking off.

The user, lamgalatx, said he had first observed the man before most people boarded.

He posted: “The man was audibly disgruntled about something, maybe hungover, rough day, I don't know (idk), but as soon as he sat down he was grumbling about something under his breath. Several minutes pass and majority of people are seated, but we still hadn’t left the gate. I overhear him loudly say, 'You thought that was rude? Well how about this smell' and farted. Idk what provoked that comment, and while kinda funny to overhear, it was uncalled for, especially coming from a grown man on an aeroplane nonetheless. The ppl seated immediately near him were ladies seemingly minding their own business. I didn’t catch anyone’s response to that but the guy seated next to me and I exchanged smiles and shook our heads.

“It’s early evening and several people are having snacks or eating food. The man who just purposefully farted moments ago decides to loudly and condescendingly say, 'yeah, everybody let’s just eat the smelliest food possible all at the same time'. A guy in the row over replied, 'if you don’t like it you can fly private' to which fartman says, 'that’s so f**g rude' and another person nearby chimes in, 'I think we’d all agree you’re the rude one here'. Fartman replies something like, 'that’s just so low class' and the other guy rebuttals with, 'well you’re back here in economy with the rest of us' lol. There were flight attendants nearby who stepped in and said, 'that’s enough' to fartman and moved on.

“The plane is finally taxiing towards the runway, but comes to a stop. An announcement comes over saying, 'apologies for the interruption, but we are returning to the gate, we will give you more info when we have it'. We get back to the gate and a flight attendant comes back and informs fartman that he will not be staying on this flight.”

He left without resistance.

“We all breathed a sigh of relief when he was removed, I think most ppl [people] were on edge about what he may say or do next. The trip was only delayed by 15-30 minutes, so all in all I think American handled it swiftly.”

Another passenger, Prize_Advice_2414, commented: “I was on that same flight Sunday eve and can attest that it was a stinky flight! I didn’t know what started the ordeal, but there were a lot of smells competing in there. It was surprising that he left peacefully, but it was quite the walk of shame.”

Many users on the platform saw the funny side, offering their quips:

Ashsquatch11: He missed an opportunity to fart on the way out and yell “SMELL YOU LATER!”

ATX_native: He farted around and found out.

Space_for_username: Crosswinds can cause difficulties when landing.

Cyberentomology: Well, he was certainly cross and windy.

Victotronics: “We all breathed a sigh of relief.” Considering all the farting, breathing out is safer than in.

Parking_Train8423: They could have dropped the oxygen masks at least.

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