Brazil News
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil – Last Friday, the crew of a Trip Airlines flight about to leave the gate booted a passenger for making sexist comments about the female pilot. The flight was about to leave Confins Airport in Belo Horizonte bound for Goiânia, reported online media.
Sexist Comments get Man Booted from Flight
According to witnesses, the behavior and comments of the passenger, who made a point of saying that he flew with women pilots before and didn’t feel comfortable with the experience, made the crew anxious.
“I will not fly with a woman in charge,” the man said before being thrown off the flight. Witnesses say that the booted passenger, who was not identified by name, appeared about 40 years old.
The President of the National Union of Airmen, commander Gelson Fochesato, lamented the situation and considered it “absurd.”
Crew members asked the man to leave the airliner but he did not comply immediately. The raucous lasted about 40 minutes. Eventually, federal police – responsible for aircraft safety – boarded the plane and escorted the man off.
Other passengers responded to the fellow with boos. The flight departed about an hour late, under the command of Captain Betânia (her surname was not released by the airline) and arrived safely at its destination about an hour later.
According to terra.com.br, a spokesman for Trip Airlines said that no employee of Trip followed the case after the man disembarked the plane.
There is no immediate word on what penalties or fines, if any, the man might suffer for the incident.
Belo Horizonte is the capital of Minas Gerais, in Southeastern Brazil. Goiânia is the capital of Goiás state in Center-West Brazil.
