There was another bizarre incident on a plane this weekend. A United Airlines pilot spoke to her passengers on an intercom on February 11, but not to tell them to make sure their seatbelts were fastened. Instead, she reportedly went on a rant about her divorce and President Donald Trump.
The pilot, whose name has not been reported yet, was late to getting onto the plane at Austin-Bergstrom Airport in Austin, Texas and arrived wearing a baseball hat and casual clothes. She was supposed to fly the passengers to San Francisco.
Witness Chris Moore told the Washington Post that the pilot started complaining to the other flight attendants when she got on board. Moore thought she was just another first-class passenger, until she took the intercom mic.
“She shows up dressed like a civilian and asks to us to take a vote to see whether she should change into her uniform or fly as is,” passenger Pam O’Neal told KPIX5. Another passenger tweeted that the pilot told the passengers that she was going through a divorce.
Then, she called Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton “assholes” and passengers asked United on Twitter to get them a new pilot. About 20 ultimately left the plane.
Then she identified an interracial couple in first class, I think in an effort to say “yay unity” but it was was awkward.
“She started off by saying that she had not voted for either Trump or Clinton because they’re a bunch of liars,” passenger Noel Portugal told KPIX. “That’s an odd way to start of the welcome to your flight. It really sort of went downhill from there and didn’t make a lot of sense to any of us.”
Portugal said that the pilot was “not in the right state of mind.” A new pilot arrived and the plane finally got off the ground, 90 minutes behind schedule. Others decided to book a flight that left from Houston.
Another passenger, Randy Reiss, told KVUE that the pilot said she wanted to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. “Being a pilot is a tough and stressful job, she was just not equipped today to do it,” he told KVUE. “She seemed in an emotionally tough space, so I hope she finds the help she probably needs.”
United issued a statement, apologizing for the incident:
We hold our employees to the highest standards and have replaced this pilot with a new one to operate the flight, which has since departed from Austin. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.