Passengers cheered a United Airlines pilot for taking a stand over a reportedly racially charged onboard dispute.
Video footage features him making a public announcement to tell passengers to respect one another and refrain from venting about politics while on his flight, in an apparent reference to the fallout from Donald Trump’s election win last week.
YouTube user Jon Bauer uploaded the now-viral cellphone video Friday that his friend shot on a United flight traveling from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Bauer wrote:
On my friend’s @wirelessness flight from SFO to Mexico, some kinda scuffle broke out where an individual with a “plaid shirt and a camo cap” said something racist (about being “glad to have kept his guns”) to an African American lady, and she began to cry and freak out. They separated the two of them, and then the Captain of the flight got on the PA and made this announcement.
During his announcement, the pilot showed the kind of leadership political leaders should be demonstrating following a post-election surge in hate crimes.
“If you support him, great. If you don’t I understand,” he said in an apparent reference to the president-elect.
The pilot urged passengers to “respect each other’s decisions, and to get along on this three-hour and 13-minute flight so we can have a good time when we get down [to Puerto Vallarta].”
“Let’s keep our opinions to ourselves on this particular matter at this particular time,” he added. “When cooler heads prevail and we can talk and realize we’re all human beings and we can all stick together ... If there’s anybody that has a problem with this ― that needs to vent or rant or rave ― there’s another flight tomorrow. You do not need to be on this one. I hope that’s clear.”
Passengers on the flight clapped and cheered the pilot after he finished speaking, and one man shouted, “Hear! Hear!”
United Airlines spokesperson Megan McCarthy told The Huffington Post, “Our pilot was attempting to defuse an argument between two customers and get everyone safely to their destination.”
She did not disclose details of the dispute.
HuffPost has reached out to Bauer for comment.