More than a dozen women got into a huge brawl on a flight to Brazil, screaming and slapping each other in front of bewildered passengers, and the situation quickly spiralled out of control. According to reports, a confrontation between two families broke out on Thursday just before the take-off of flight G31659 of Gol Airlines Salvador to Sao Paulo.
The fight ensued after a mother asked another passenger whether she could switch seats with her child who has special needs. When her request was ejected, she had a violent breakdown and started attacking the latter’s family after she refused to exchange seats.
During the tumultuous scene on a Gol Airlines flight from Salvador to Sao Paulo on Thursday, the video shows the women beating one other and yanking each other’s hair as flight attendants unsuccessfully attempted to separate them.
Massive brawl breaks out on airline flight to Brazil… over a window seat. pic.twitter.com/zTMZPYzzDy
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 3, 2023
In the midst of the brawl, women were slapping one other and bending over the distressed flight attendants. The women were pulling the hair of others and climbed over the seats to attack the other side. The flight attendants kept trying to stop the fight, by holding them back and trying to pull them away.
The fight was so intense that one of the women lost her strapless top and she was having to cover her bare breasts with her hands.
Following nearly two hours of delay, the crew was able to take control of the situation and remove the 15 unruly passengers from the aircraft, after which the plane was able to continue to its destination.
A cabin crew member described the fight’s progression as, “I was already closing the doors when I saw the two slapping each other in row 20. I ran, as soon as I got there, I already got between the two, but what happens: One family had five people and the other 10. The two families started slapping each other, cursing each other.”
As per her account, the women were screaming, slapping, and cursing at each other during the ugly altercation. The hair pulling and striking each other caused a passenger wearing a white bandeau top to fall out of the strapless garment at one point, forcing her to cover her breasts, the crew member said.
“Gol informs that the scene in the video circulating on social media took place before the takeoff of flight G3 1659 this Thursday (02/02) between Salvador (SSA) and Congonhas (CGH), in São Paulo. Everyone involved at the scene of violence [was] disembarked and did not continue their journey. The company regrets any act of violence and reinforces that the actions taken by the crew team were taken with a focus on safety, Gol’s number 1 value,” the airliner later said in a statement.
Two men got into a similar argument in 2021 on an American Airlines aircraft and started punching each other over a reclining seat. Later, when the jet from New Orleans landed in Texas, they were detained.
A Delta Airlines passenger was arrested in October 2021 after he argued with the passenger sitting behind him just before take-off. The argument centred on his fellow traveller putting something in the seatback pocket.
On a Tunisair trip that same year, an argument about overhead storage led to physical confrontation. Cabin crew members who tried to stop a group of passengers from pushing and yelling at one other were also insulted and attacked.
