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Miami police escorted an unruly passenger off a Delta flight after she slapped a flight attendant who asked her to wear a mask.
The flight from Miami to Atlanta was preparing to take off when the altercation occurred in front of shocked passengers.
Other passengers filmed the incident and shared the footage on social media.
The video shows the flight attendant asking the female passenger and her boyfriend to buckle up and wear their face masks in accordance with local ordinances.
But the passenger refused to put on her face mask which was hanging under her chin. The passenger's boyfriend tried to hold her back after she slapped the flight attendant in the face.
Other passengers stood up and intervened in the argument, separating the two women.
The footage shows Miami police escorting the couple off the plane moments later. The flight was delayed for 4 hours.
"The police have boarded the aircraft. The passenger does now seem to be leaving," said Katty Kay, a journalist with BBC News, who was on the flight. "The @Delta flight attendants handled it with remarkable patience and good humor," she tweeted.
There have been numerous altercations over airline passengers refusing to wear face masks amid the weakening pandemic.
A recent study by the CDC shows 74% of people who always wear face masks were infected with Covid-19. The same study shows only 12% of people who never wear face masks were infected.
