A woman who lost her cool after realizing she was seated next to a Donald Trump supporter on a Alaska Airlines flight was removed from the plane by airport security.
According to a post on his Facebook page, Scott Koteskey was putting his bag in the overhead locker on a Baltimore-to-Seattle-flight when a woman sitting next to him asked if he had been in Baltimore to “cheer” or “protest.” (There was a women’s march in the city this past weekend.)
In the post, Koteskey, who describes himself a Trump backer, says he told the woman he had been in Baltimore to “celebrate democracy.” The woman then immediately started harassing him about his political views, he wrote.
Koteskey also shared a video that shows him complaining to airline staff about the verbal assault. When an air hostess walks up to their aisle to check what the issue was, the woman says righteously: “I would like for him to change seats.”
To her surprise, the hostess refused. The woman then turned back to Koteskey and launched into a bizarre rant, seemingly suggesting that Koteskey was a climate denialist.
“You pretend you have the moral high ground but you put that man’s finger on the nuclear button. That man doesn’t ‘believe’ in climate change,” she can be heard saying in the video footage of the scene, also posted on Facebook.
“Do you believe in gravity? Did you know gravity is just a theory?”
When a member of the airline staff politely asked to pick up her belongings and get off the plane, she refused, saying she had paid for the seat and there was “no way” she was getting off the plane.
“My mother-in-law just passed away. Have some respect,” she added.
Koteskey also shared a second video of the incident on his Facebook page, filmed by a different passenger sitting in a row across from him, showing the moment when the woman was escorted off the plane.
Although the video’s sound quality is poor, people can be heard cheering and clapping in the background as she gets up from her seat.
Several people commenting on Koteskey’s posts praised him for staying calm and handling the situation appropriately, while others criticized the woman for lashing out at him.
“If this bitch is so concerned about ‘climate change’ why is she contributing to the carbon foot print by flying in a plane,” one wrote.
“Ok your husband lost his mother and that gives you the right to harass others. So why don’t you show your husband some damn respect,” said another one.
Alaska Airlines could not immediately be reached for comment about the altercation.
