A United Airlines passenger was ousted from a flight earlier this month after launching into a tirade against two African-American passengers who she deemed to be “too fat” to sit with.
The incident occurred just before takeoff on a Las Vegas-to-Newark flight on New Year’s Day, Inside Edition reported. Norma Rodgers, an oncology nurse who once appeared on the “Dr. Oz” show, was seated on one side of the woman, while her travel companion sat on the opposite side.
United Airlines said they removed the woman from the flight after they determined her behavior to be problematic. (Inside Edition / video screenshot )
Rodgers recorded the moment the woman began making snide remarks about their weight.
“Oh my goodness, I don’t know how I’m gonna do this the next four hours,” she’s heard saying. “I’m stuck, but at least they’ll keep me warm.”
“I can breathe, I’m so squished,” she added.
Refusing to tolerate the woman’s abuse, Rodgers flagged down a flight attendant to see if it was possible to have her moved to another seat.
“Excuse me, can you find her another seat?” she asks. “Because I will not be verbally abused by this b—h or anybody else.”
The flight attendant offered to help the woman find a new seat, but not before she managed to sneak in one last insult as she got up to leave.
“I eat salads,” she said.
“B—h, kiss my fat ass, OK?” Rodgers shot back.
Fellow passengers were equally outraged at the woman’s behavior and didn’t hesitate to call her out on it. One of those passengers happened to be Jonathan Fernandez, a star of Vh1’s “Love and Hip Hop: New York.”
Fernandez called woman “disgusting” as she moseyed to the back of the plane.
“I was appalled and I felt angry, because I am like, there are so many ways to go about this and I just hate that no one was kinda saying anything so I couldn’t hold it in, I and was like, ‘You’re disgusting! You’re disgusting!’” the reality star told Inside Edition.
United eventually removed the woman from the flight before departing. The airline later addressed the incident in a statement.
“United flight attendants acted quickly to find a different seat for the disruptive customer. When it became clear that this passenger’s behavior was likely to be problematic on this flight, she was provided alternate travel arrangements first thing the next morning.”
Watch more in the clip below.
