'Airplane Mode' dispute leaves four SkyWest passengers stranded
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'Airplane Mode' dispute leaves four SkyWest passengers stranded

Updated | By The Scenic Drive with Rian

Robyn Rodgers, an artist and activist who is known as DJ Reborn, caught a SkyWest Airlines flight attendant displaying discriminatory behaviour on video and shared it on social media. 

skywest flight
Instagram/djreborn

Air travel within the United States is not without its hiccups. From rules about taking animals on-board to issues with timely departures, passengers have laid a myriad of complaints. 

While many problems are often easily solved with a quick conversation, there have been a few incidents where passengers have been removed or banned from planes. The latest such incident involves New York native Robyn Rodgers (aka DJ Reborn), who was kicked off a SkyWest Airlines flight from Fort Wayne International Airport. 

Apologies y’all this is a LONG post but I have to share this. First, I want to acknowledge because I am painfully aware of the serious and profoundly heartbreaking injustices/events happening in our world and communities,I have grappled with sharing my experience. It seems small in the face of those things. But the micro is important and little things that go unchecked spiral. So I was on a flight leaving Fort Wayne, Indiana this past Saturday June 23rd after doing a DJ workshop for #gearfest @sweetwater for @serato when I was unfairly ejected from @delta flight 4527. Just before take off the flight attendant rudely told me to put my phone on airplane mode.As I was swiping to it the attendant menacingly stood over me with her arms folded waiting for me to do it. I told her “I know how to turn on airplane mode, you don’t have to stand over me” 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. She stormed to the front then came back to my seat and said we were going back to the gate. She then accused me of not turning on airplane mode after being “told to do so several times”. She only asked me once. I then asked her “What can we do to rectify this so that we can all go?” She said “You can comply” and I repeated that I had and she argued I did not. At that point the passenger sitting behind me @ryanmillerphotos told her that I had complied and he witnessed me doing so. She then threatened to kick him off of the flight as well. A Latina woman two rows ahead politely asked the flight attendant to sit down so that we could fly and the attendant snapped at her. We returned to the gate an officer boarded the plane and the flight attendant directed him to take me, the Latina woman @ryanmillerphotos off of the flight then the entire plane had to deboard. Subsequently 4 adults and a little boy were ejected permanently from the flight and stranded in Indiana with no place to stay as @delta refused to put any of us,including the man with the child,in a hotel. That was the last flight out. Elena, the Latina woman who was also ejected was rushing

A post shared by dj reborn (@djreborn) on

In an Instagram post, Robyn claims that the flight attendant was rude when she asked the DJ to switch her phone to flight mode. Robyn says she complied but made sure to let the flight attendant know that she did not appreciate the way that she was talking to her. 

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An argument ensued and a handful of passengers came to Robyn's defence, asking the flight attendant to accept that she had complied and to take her seat so that the flight could take off. 

The flight attendant, clearly in a combative mood, made good on her threat to ask the captain to direct the plane back to the gate so that Robyn could disembark. The other passengers who had stood up for Robyn were asked to leave the plane as well.

None of the stranded passengers was offered any help despite Delta Airlines (the affiliate company for SkyWest) saying that it endeavours to find accommodation for passengers who are left stranded. 

Reports suggest that the flight attendant's behaviour was a reaction to her "feeling unsafe".

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