Woman kicked off flight over airplane mode dispute with crew member

A woman and several other passengers are claiming a flight attendant unfairly removed them from a plane after a dispute over electronics being placed on airplane mode.

Robyn Rodgers, also known and DJ Reborn, posted on her Instagram and Facebook a video of the altercation on the Skywest Airlines flight at Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana.

According to the post, Ms Rodgers was asked by the flight attendant to put her cell phone on airplane mode. The attendant, an employee of Skywest Airlines, a regional airline that Delta contracts with to operate flights to smaller cities, stood over her and watched her.

“I told her ‘I know how to turn on airplane mode, you don’t have to stand over me’,” Rodgers wrote in her now viral post.

“She became agitated and said, ‘If you’re gonna act like that we can go back to the gate and you can get off’. I held up my phone to show her that airplane mode was on.”

The attendant left and then came back to Ms Rodgers’ seat to let her know the plane was returning to the gate, and she would be asked to leave. Other passengers, including a Latina woman and one adult with a child, spoke up to defend Rodgers. They were also removed.

Despite it being the last flight to their destination, Delta did not offer a hotel room to the four adults, including one with a child, who were removed from the plane. Rodgers says that the Latina woman, Elena, was trying to get home to Texas because her son was having heart surgery.

Marissa Snow, a SkyWest spokesperson, told USA TODAY the airline was currently reviewing the reports from the flight.

“We take all allegations of discrimination seriously and are reviewing reports from SkyWest flight 4527 operating as Delta Connection,” Ms Snow said in a statement to the New York Daily News.

“We are disappointed that our customers had this experience and are working with our partner Delta to follow up directly with the customers involved.”