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Fellow commuters of the passenger who was forcibly removed from a Kulula flight during the early hours of Saturday, insist that the woman did nothing wrong. Watch the footage above.
In a video posted online, three police officers are seen confronting the woman on the aircraft. One officer attempts to pull her out of her seat and a brief struggle ensues. Other passengers stand up to defend the woman.
According to the airline, the passenger had been "unruly".
"The captain decided to disembark the aircraft after a customer became unruly and refused to leave the flight after failing to comply with instructions from both the crew and the police," Kulula said in a statement.
"The flight had been delayed because of a weather disruption to an earlier flight."
Fellow passenger Sanele Gumede said the flight bound for Johannesburg was scheduled to depart at 21:55 on Friday, but passengers only boarded the aircraft at 01:00 on Saturday.
"One passenger was upset, she went and confronted the captain!" he told News24.
"He [the captain] got irritated and announced that he wants her to be escorted out immediately, everyone was like 'hell no'!" Gumede said.
According to Gumede, irritated fellow passengers stood in solidarity with the woman.
"If you chase her, you chase us all out!" he says they insisted.
"The cops were called in and the drama dragged on until 3am," he added.
The flight was eventually cancelled. According to Gumede, passengers were told to disembark or face detention.
While Kulula apologised to customers for the delay, it stood its ground on the treatment of its crew.
"Our crew have the right to work without being verbally or physically abused," the airline said.
The disgruntled passengers eventually made it to Johannesburg at 04:20 on Saturday.
