'Goodbye Racist!' Passengers Cheer as Man Booted off Flight

A man who reportedly harangued a Pakistani couple was escorted off a United flight Saturday evening, drawing cheers from passengers. "Goodbye racist!" a woman hollered as the man and his companion were escorted off the plane, the Washington Post reports. The incident aboard Flight 1113 from Chicago to Houston began after a Pakistani couple in traditional dress boarded the plane. "That's not a bomb in your bag, is it?" a man asked them twice, a passenger sitting with her Indian-American boyfriend told KHOU. "The person ahead of us turned around and asked where my boyfriend was from; my boyfriend said it’s none of your business,” she says. “At that point he said all illegals and all foreigners need to leave the country.”

Passengers complained, and cellphone video captured a flight attendant approaching the man and asking him to gather his belongings. "I didn't do nothing," he protests. As he gets up to leave, the unidentified man says, "Happy flight home. I hope you stay there." A woman traveling with him flashes her middle finger. "Racists aren't welcome in America. This is not Trump's America!" says the woman filming. "Goodbye racist!" She tells KHOU that passengers cheered as the couple were led away. But in a parting shot, the man says, "Hey, I’ll come back, but you’ll be gone." A United rep tells the Post that removing passengers is rare but "most customers appreciate a place where they feel safe and where they’re not going to be attacked and we want to provide that." (A prankster claims Delta kicked him off a flight for speaking Arabic.)