Wild airport brawl ensues when Spirit hits travelers with extra fees for oversized carry-on baggage

A mother-daughter duo unsatisfied with an extra fee ahead of their flight let gate attendants know about it as fists and wigs flew Monday night in Philadelphia.

The dispute, captured on video, occurred around 7 p.m. Monday when a 39-year-old and her 17-year-old daughter were attempting to board a Spirit Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida from Philadelphia International Airport.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, as they were boarding, gate agents informed the passengers that their oversized carry-on item required the payment of an additional baggage fee triggering a brawl.

The outlet described some of the mayhem writing, “The younger woman tugs violently on a Spirit staffer’s dreadlocks while an airport worker in a high visibility jacket slaps her over the back of the head and shouts ‘get off, get off.'”

At one point, the mother could be seen in her bra after losing her shirt and shoes in the scrap, but continues to fight while an onlooker was heard yelling, “Where the f*ck is security.”

Image: DailyMail

A boy who may have been part of the family was also seen hitting a Spirit employee only to retreat in tears and, when the melee looked to be concluding, the mother charged the service counter and grabbed the keyboard before getting “dragged away and punched in the head from behind by one of the Spirit agents.”

A uniformed official arrived after the woman’s wig was pulled off concluding the roughly two and a half minutes of physical conflict.

One witness told the Mail, “I was shocked at how violent it was and how long it went for.”

“I don’t know exactly who started it, but there was a lot of yelling and I turned around to see two Spirit employees fighting a mother and daughter,” the witness continued. “Someone was bleeding. At on stages a child got involved. Regardless of what he did, he’s just a kid — he looked distraught.”

“If this is the way Spirit Airlines operates,” the witness concluded, “it’s really scary.”

After another incident on a Spirit flight where a passenger was seen been escorted off the plane and telling others on board, “I hope you all crash and die,” Barstool Sports provided a concise description of what flying the low cost airline is like.

“Flying Spirit Airlines is bad enough. The company is built on the human instinct to take a $30 savings in the moment knowing that you won’t have to worry about dealing with the painful Hell you will experience whenever you board the plane,” they wrote. “They charge you extra for even the most basic of amenities. Plus you are surrounded by people who have made the same brutal mistake. Everyone is miserable and uncomfortable. If you haven’t flown Spirit, it’s almost worth going on a very short flight just for the story. It would be like serving a quick 15 day prison sentence. Yeah, the two weeks would be sh*t but you’d have a great story at any party.”

No arrests were made following the incident, but a “24-year-old,” presumably a Spirit employee, filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Police Department according to a statement from a spokesperson, “On Monday, January 30th, 2023, at approximately 7:29 P.M. police received information that several passengers were pulling apart a 24-year-old female complainant and a 17-year-old female along with her 39-year-old mother during an argument over additional baggage fees.”

“At this time, the 17-year-old female attempted to access Jetway and was halted by the 24-year-old complainant when she was punched/hair pulled by the 17-year-old female being assisted by her 39-year-old mother,” the spokesperson continued. “The 24-year-old female sustained a minor eyelid laceration. All participants were advised by police in reference to private criminal complaint documentation.”

Kevin Haggerty

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