On Thursday, February 2nd, a fight broke out between multiple passengers on a GOL Airlines flight. The conflict began before the aircraft departed the gate. The involved parties were from one of two families quarreling over seating arrangements. Flight crew members, including flight attendants and pilots, worked to break up the fight. Eventually, the involved passengers were escorted off the plane, so the flight could get underway. Let's take a closer look at what happened.

Airplane brawl

Our story begins in Salvador, Brazil. When the final passengers boarded the GOL Airlines Boeing 737 bound for São Paulo's GRU Airport (GRU), a discrepancy in seating arrangements was discovered. The discrepancy was that a mother could not sit by her disabled child. In hopes of sitting with her child, she asked a passenger to swap seats with her, so this would be possible. When the passenger refused, the mother attacked their family members.

The mother, who had begun attacking the passenger and their family members, had mistakenly picked a fight with a family of 10. This quickly escalated into a family feud between the 10-person family and the angered mother's five-person family. The two families began slapping and hitting one another while exchanging vulgarisms. The centerpiece of the fight was two women going ballistic on one another. It is not clear precisely who each passenger was, but it is presumed that one was the angered mother. These passengers were subsequently pulled away from one another.

Photo: Felipegsb | Shutterstock

The flight crew was dragged into the fight as they attempted to break it up. Unfortunately, crew members took a significant portion of the passenger's physical and verbal aggression. One flight attendant shared with the Brazilian news outlet Aventuras na História, that they were closing the cabin door when they heard the fight begin and rushed to break it up. The flight attendant stated,

"I was already closing the doors when I saw the two slapping each other in row 20,

"I ran, as soon as I got there, I already got between the two, but what happens: One family had five people and the other 10. The two families started slapping each other, cursing each other."

Thankfully the incident occurred while the airplane was still at the gate. This allowed police to escort the passengers off of the plane. Had this happened in the air, the flight attendants would have needed to break up the fight, and the pilots would have needed to divert to another airport to land so the passengers could be removed. This likely would have allowed the conflict to persist and possibly escalate until someone was seriously injured. So far, no serious injuries have been reported as a result of the fight. A representative for GOL Airlines has told Simple Flying the following concerning the incident,

"GOL informs that the scene in the video circulating on social media took place before the takeoff of flight G3 1659 this Thursday (02/02) between Salvador (SSA) and Congonhas (CGH), in São Paulo. Everyone involved at the scene of violence were disembarked and did not continue their journey. The Company regrets any act of violence and reinforces that the actions taken by the crew team were taken with a focus on Safety, GOL's number 1 value."

Viral video

The event has been well documented as other passengers took multiple videos of the fight. The below short video shows flight crew members attempting to break up the fight. Viewer discretion is advised.

Another video shared by Twitter user O Tempo shows the fight from another angle and for a longer duration. Fortunately, the fight was broken up, and the flight did fly its scheduled route. When the flight reached GRU, it was approximately two hours late due to the incident at SAL.

What do you think of this incident? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Newsweek