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International

24th Jan 2024

Plane forced to turn around due to excessively farting passenger

Nina McLaughlin

Well, that stinks.

Passengers on an American Airlines flight were left somewhat disgruntled after the plane was reportedly forced to be diverted after a passenger’s flatulence issues.

The flight, which was going from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, ended up being delayed by 15 to 30 minutes according to a person who was on the plane.

“I was on a direct American flight from Phoenix to Austin and I was seated near the row where this situation occurred,” they wrote on Reddit.

They said that although they did not film any of the incident, they wanted to share details of the event as it was ‘somewhat entertaining’.

The passenger explained that they witnessed a man who was having a rough day.

They explained: “Before most people had boarded, I observed that this man was audibly disgruntled about something, maybe hungover, rough day idk, but as soon as he sat down he was grumbling about something under his breath, like ‘f***ing hell’ or something.

“Several minutes pass and majority of people are seated but we still hadn’t left the gate.

“I overhear him loudly say ‘You thought that was rude? Well how about this smell’ and farted. Idk what provoked that comment, and while kinda funny to overhear, it was uncalled for especially coming from a grown man on an airplane nonetheless.

“The ppl seated immediately near him were ladies seemingly minding their own business. I didn’t catch anyone’s response to that but the guy seated next to me and I exchanged smiles and shook our heads.”

The ‘fartman’ as the Redditor dubbed him went on to criticise passengers for eating food on the plane.

He then allegedly proclaimed: “Yeah, everybody let’s just eat the smelliest food possible all at the same time.”

Rather unsurprisingly, this caused backlash from other passengers, with the Redditor saying that someone responded: “If you don’t like it you can fly private.”

Another passenger said: “I think we’d all agree you’re the rude one here.”

The flight attendants stepped in after ‘fartman’ hit back at his critics, and told him to pipe down.

“The plane is finally taxiing towards the runway but comes to a stop,” the Redditor continued.

“An announcement comes over saying ‘apologies for the interruption but we are returning to the gate, we will give you more info when we have it.’

“We get back to the gate and a flight attendant comes back and informs ‘fartman’ that he will not be staying on this flight.

“He simply replies, ‘I don’t understand’ and she tells him they’ll talk about it off the plane. He gets up, grabs his bag and quietly exits the plane.

“We all breathed a sigh of relief when he was removed, I think most ppl were on edge about what he may say or do next.”

They concluded that the flight only ended up being delayed by maximum 30 minutes, and praised American Airlines for handling the situation ‘swiftly’. Read more: