Two Spirit Airlines employees were caught on camera losing their patience and throwing a fit with passengers preparing to board a Las Vegas-bound flight from California.
The incident happened at the Hollywood Burbank Airport, Inside Edition reported.
The video starts with a view of one agent on the gate’s intercom system loudly pleading for calm and order as dozens of passengers crowd the counter waiting to board.
“I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know what aircraft is sitting out there, I don’t know what’s going on. You guys won’t give me a minute,” the agent said of the passengers. “Please give me a minute. Please!”
Several passengers are heard clapping and vocalizing their support for her in the background.
The video then cuts to the moment another agent is screaming at the passengers.
“Alright! Do you all wanna get on this flight or not!?” the agent was heard loudly asking the passengers, to which everyone answered with a resounding “Yes!”
The agent goes on to yell, “Alright! So, everyone’s gonna shut up, and we’re gonna say this once and we’re only gonna say it again because we’re frustrated as hell!”
The passengers respond again in unison, “Yes!”
Kevin Eis, the passenger recording the video, moves in for a close-up shot of the first agent, who looks visibly annoyed by the close encounter.
“Sir, I can remove you from the flight,” the agent told Eis before she began chastising him further.
The confusion began with an eight-hour delay from a morning flight. As passengers for that flight waited, other passengers who were scheduled to take off from a different flight at that same gate began to gather, leading to congestion as a huge crowd began to form.
“Oh my God, it was the most chaotic thing that has ever happened to me at an airport,” Eis told Inside Edition.
Spirit Airlines shared that the two employees have been suspended from their jobs for the time being.
“We apologize to our Guests for this experience, which does not reflect Spirit’s high standards for Guest service,” the airline said in a statement.
Unfortunately for Spirit, the viral video posted to X, formerly Twitter, saw many commenters saying the experience is “on brand” for the carrier. One user couldn’t believe what he was watching. “You couldn’t tell me this isn’t a skit,” his post read. Others were shocked at the “unserious” responses from passengers who seemed at one point to cheer on the employees.
While the confusion and overcrowding at the gate might have set off both agents, it wouldn’t be the first time airline workers recently had to handle conflicts with their passengers.
In June, an argument between four Spirit Airlines workers and a passenger at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport escalated into a full-fledged fight. The workers were suspended from their jobs after the incident.
Last February, two passengers and two Spirit gate agents brawled at the Philadelphia airport. The fight started after the agents told a mother and her daughter their bags were too big to be designated carry-ons and that they had to pay a baggage fee to get on the flight. The daughter ignored the agents and went ahead to board anyway. The fight started when one agent tried to stop her. All four had to answer to a private criminal complaint.
