A travel influencer claimed he faced 'one of the most traumatic' experiences he's ever had as he was kicked off a flight for taking a seemingly innocent picture.
Jimmy Mitchell regularly uses TikTok to document his life traveling with his wife and kids, and this week was no different as the family prepared to go on a cruise.
They were set to fly with Jetstar from Sydney to Brisbane, but before Mitchell made it on board he claimed he was called an 'idiot' by a member of the crew.
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In a video shared online, Mitchell and his wife claimed the crew member was waving her arms around as she shouted at Mitchell, who turned around 'in disbelief'.
"I was half way up the stairs at this point," he said in the video. "I basically stormed over to her and I was like, ‘Are you serious? What did you just call me?’"
The crew member's comment allegedly came after Mitchell snapped a photo of his family as they made their way up the stairs of the plane.
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The seemingly inoffensive picture showed his family grinning as they prepared to set off, but it turned out that Mitchell had ignored a request from the airline by taking it.
Mitchell recalled the crew member saying 'you can’t take photos on the tarmac', but he was unaware of the fact that the airline had previously made an announcement explaining that passengers weren't allowed to use phones on the tarmac because the plane was refuelling.
"Apparently, they made an announcement, but I had noise cancelling headphones, Pauline (Mitchell's wife) told me after the fact - I didn’t hear it, there was no notifications about it, there was no signage, no nothing," he said.
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“All she had to do was say something constructive. ‘Get off your phone’, ‘you can’t have your phone out’ and I would have been like ‘sorry’, but she screams across the tarmac calling me an idiot," Mitchell continued.
Mitchell's family had already got on the plane, but the crew member allegedly told the dad he was not allowed to board.
He returned to the terminal and filmed his first TikTok video expressing his shock at the situation, before later sharing an update to say 'cooler heads prevailed' and he was able to board the plane.
Though he was ultimately able to join his family, Mitchell maintained that the crew member was 'completely out of line' for calling him an 'idiot'.
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Jetstar has since responded to Mitchell's claims and assured the incident is being investigated.
In a statement to UNILAD, the airline said: "All our customers and team members have the right to feel respected when flying with us or when at work and we’re looking into what took place in this instance."
It added that phones are prohibited on the tarmac because 'this is an operational space', adding: "We remind customers of this via gate PAs."
Topics: Travel, TikTok, Social Media, Viral, Australia
Emily Brown