FIGHT OR FLIGHT

Flight Grounded for Four Hours After Attendants Have Epic Meltdown

The “disagreement” was so intense that the entire crew had to be replaced.

An argument between two United Airlines attendants escalated to such an extent that it grounded the entire flight, leaving passengers stranded for more than four hours. The incident occurred aboard United Flight UA-2138, which was scheduled to depart from Des Moines International Airport at 11:26 a.m. on Monday and arrive at Chicago O’Hare around 90 minutes later. However, instead of taking off, passengers were deplaned after sitting on the tarmac for nearly two hours, as a heated argument between crew members had become too intense to continue. According to an internal flight record, the cause of the delay was a “disagreement” between two flight attendants, although the memo didn’t specify the reason behind their multi-hour meltdown. Eventually, United’s airport management intervened and pulled the entire crew from the Airbus A320, which was forced to locate and assign a replacement crew to operate the flight at short notice. The aircraft finally departed from Des Moines at 3:24 p.m. and arrived in Chicago at 5:09 p.m., resulting in a total delay of four hours and twelve minutes.