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United Airlines Pilot Rant Gets Her Removed, Delays Flight

United Airlines Pilot Rant Gets Her Removed, Delays Flight

A United Airlines Boeing 737. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

By    |   Monday, 13 February 2017 01:01 PM EST

A United Airlines pilot was removed from a flight over the weekend following a strange rant.

The pilot was replaced before a flight from Austin to San Francisco departed on Saturday after she gave a rant over the intercom, telling passengers that both President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were liars, according Reuters.

The pilot boarded the plane wearing street clothes and started to get political over the intercom and also told passengers that she was getting a divorce.

“She shows up dressed like a civilian and asked us to take a vote to see whether we should have her change into her uniform or fly as is,” passenger Pam O’Neal said, according to KPIX-TV.

“She started off by saying that she had not voted for either Trump or Clinton because they’re a bunch of liars," passenger Noel Portugal told the station. "That’s an odd way to start the welcome to your flight. It really sort of went downhill from there and didn’t make a lot of sense to any of us."

The pilot apologized for being late, explaining that it was because she is going through a divorce, BuzzFeed News reported, quoting passenger Randy Reiss as saying, “It quickly went from playful to scary.”

The pilot acknowledged some passengers who appeared to be fearful during her rant and offered them the chance to get off the plane.

Reiss told KVUE-TV that “Being a pilot is a tough and stressful job, she was just not equipped today to do it. She seemed in an emotionally tough space, so I hope she finds the help she probably needs.”

The airline declined to identify the pilot, but apologized for the incident.

“We hold our employees to the highest standards and replaced the pilot with a new one to operate the flight, which has since departed Austin. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the United Airlines said in a statement on Saturday, according to Reuters.

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TheWire
A United Airlines pilot was removed from a flight over the weekend following a strange rant.
united airlines, pilot, rant, flight
327
2017-01-13
Monday, 13 February 2017 01:01 PM
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