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In a viral video, passengers from Southwest Airlines stranded at the Nashville airport were captured being threatened with arrest for "trespassing" a secured line by an airport police officer.
The video, posted on Wednesday, December 28, on TikTok by 20-year-old Amani Robinson, showed an officer confronting the passengers on the secure line near the airline gate at Nashville airport.
In the video, the officer can be heard telling the passengers without valid tickets to move towards the unsecured line/ticket counter or they will be arrested for trespassing. However, the stranded passengers counter that they have a ticket, but the officer shoots them down, saying,
"You're tickets just got cancelled.”
Nashville airport stranded passengers threatened with arrest during the holidays
Passengers from Southwest Airlines at the Nashville airport were already dismayed amid significant delays and cancellations of their flights during the holidays. Their woes were amplified after airport security threatened them with arrest for trespassing while passengers tried to find a resolution to their plight.
A video posted by passenger Amani Robinson, who was traveling with her mother, captured the discomfited response of the passenger after being threatened with detainment for standing in a secure line despite holding a ticket.
In the video, Robinson’s mother, Shelley Morrison, who identified herself as a lawyer, asked the officer the reason behind the threat, to which the airport police officer replied:
“If you don’t have a valid ticket and you’re on the secured side and you refuse to leave, you’ll be arrested.”
Responding to the officer, the passenger asserted that the airline had not canceled their flight but had instead been delayed. The passenger tried to explain their plight to the officer, adding that they were trying to find out when the airline would potentially resume services.
The officer maintained that their tickets were not valid since the airline had indeed canceled all the flights for the day.
Nashville passengers continue to confront the officer who threatened them with arrest
The frustration of the Nashville passengers was evident in the video; they continued to admonish the officer for threatening the stranded passengers despite their ordeal.
In a second clip, Robinson said that the officer picked her family out of the crowd while standing in another line after they were chased out of the secured counter. Robinson said that other passengers from the former line had also joined them at the second counter, but they were not confronted by the officers who singled out her family.
The statement in the video read:
“Mind you we left and went to another line after we left the first line. He then FOLLOWED US to this line and picked us out specifically out of a line full of people. We were not the only ones in the second line that came from the first line either. He picked US OUT.”
Following the video, Southwest Airlines issued a statement defending its stance in the face of mounting criticism sparked by the Nashville passenger's claims. The airline said that they had dispatched the officer to the gate to move the passengers to the "pre-security ticketing counters.”
They added that they recognize the frustrations of the Nashville passengers stranded due to the delays and cancellations of their flight amid a storm battering the country. However, they asked passengers to be patient while they worked to find a solution to the issues faced by the airline.
The Dallas-based carrier said:
“Southwest Airlines personnel contacted the Airport Communications Center asking that a police officer be dispatched to C-concourse, Gate C-7/9, to escort passengers to the pre-security ticketing counters.”
They added:
“We understand and appreciate the frustrations travellers may have, and we are working to provide the best passenger experience for all.”
The airline has not identified the officers in the video.
The video comes on the heels of Southwest Airlines facing significant flak for delaying and/or cancelling thousands of flights during the holiday season. While many airlines have postponed flights due to unprecedented storms ravaging the country, Southwest has canceled more than 70% of its flights Monday, December 26, superseding the numbers of other carriers, NBC reports.
