The mixed martial arts fighter known as “Tex” Johnson recently flew into a rage against a Black man sitting behind him on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Atlanta.
After physically threatening the man and dropping multiple f-bombs, Aaron Johnson, 33, was ultimately kicked off the flight by some fierce female crew members who managed to wrangle the Brazilian jiujitsu star during mid-boarding.
The altercation was caught on video, which shows Johnson becoming increasingly unglued and belligerent.
In a scene that would be worthy of a wild MMA fight, he hurled expletives at a Black flight attendant and then lurched over the back of his seat to confront an older Black man.
Even after he was pushed out of the exit door by the flight attendants, the chaos continued on the bridge, and a video posted to Instagram showed him being carted away on a stretcher, yelling ‘This is bulls***… bulls***’ followed by “I am being treated like a black person right now.”
The series of videos filmed by someone named Kenzi opened with Johnson threatening to “call the cops” on a Black crew member. “I’ll hire a lawyer,” he said, adding, “you’re f**cked.”
@shakemy.ash #southwest #breakingnews @CNN #flightattendant #fyp video courtesy @Kkm ♬ original sound – Shake my ash
The raging passenger then stood up, only to be told by a man off-camera to “sit yo ass down!” At that point, all hell broke loose, as the self-described BJJ black belt seemed to forget he wasn’t in the ring, telling the man behind him to “Hit me! Hit me, you lying as* f**k.”
A female flight attendant attempted to de-escalate the situation, but to no avail. Johnson was temporarily restrained by another crew member who was almost half his size as she screamed “shut your mouth” in his face while holding his hands apart.
“Assault! Assault! Abuse!” he screamed, before gathering his bags and heading toward the airplane’s exit to a round of cheers and applause from fellow passengers who were glad to see him go.
Unfortunately, Johnson crashed and burned on the bridge just outside the door, and the female flight attendants once again stepped up. “Not on my plane!” yelled one while preventing him from re-boarding. Another commanded him to leave: “No, go!” Several men, including the pilot, gathered around the melee, apparently as backup if things went further off the rails.
@mrskk0404 Welcome to the no fly list #southwest #nyc #atl ♬ original sound – Kkm
“The men not doing anything is making me so mad, but the pilot not doing anything is taking me to another Orbit!” wrote a TikTok user, echoing the sentiment of many commenters. “Kudos to the female flight attendants. I was in row 19 and all three women jumped right into action and handled the situation with such professionalism and strength,” said another.
The altercation on the bridge dragged on for over a minute as Johnson, out of sight of the camera, could be heard raging outside the airplane. In separate footage taken by a witness inside the airport terminal, he was restrained on a stretcher and escorted out by police officers.
“Flight attendants are NOT paid enough,” read a comment with nearly a thousand likes, quickly followed by, “FAs need hazard pay at this rate!”
Many are asking in the comments, “Where was the air marshal?” The undercover armed federal agents have been tasked with ensuring aviation safety in the U.S. since 1961. But according to The New York Times, air marshals are far less common than in years past, and now there’s only a 6 percent chance one will be on board any given flight.
Meanwhile, the number of unruly passengers has been increasing since the pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Since his meltdown video went viral, Johnson has taken to Instagram to post existential quotes from philosophers such as Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, including one that reads “they called me dangerous for thinking.” In another Instagram story, he shared a close-up of his hand tattoo, ominously captioned, “That’s the motto – Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.” There is no word yet on what kind of charges he is facing.
@mrskk0404 @Southwest airlines #crashout #storytime repost courtesy of @Shake my ash other vid courtesy of @This is a spam ♬ original sound – Kkm
Great Job Grace Jidoun & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
