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Mass brawl over window seat on airplane at Brazil airport

05 February 2023 08:55 (UTC +04:00)

A mass brawl involving 15 people took place on board a Brazilian Gol Airlines flight due to leave Salvador, Brazil for São Paulo on Thursday, February 2, APA reports citing Sputnik.

The cause of the conflict, according to media reports, was a mother's inability to sit next to her disabled son.

The incident occurred while passengers were boarding flight in São Paulo, according to Simple Flying. The conflict arose between two families, when one of the passengers asked the other to swap seats on the plane, so the first could have sat with her special needs child. The latter refused the request, which enraged the former and she started to attack her. The quarrel between the two passengers quickly escalated into a mass fistfight involving total of 15 family members.

The GOL Airlines' representative commented the incident to US media as following:

"GOL informs that the scene in the video circulating on social media took place before the takeoff of flight G3 1659 this Thursday (02/02) between Salvador (SSA) and Congonhas (CGH), in São Paulo. Everyone involved at the scene of violence were disembarked and did not continue their journey. The Company regrets any act of violence and reinforces that the actions taken by the crew team were taken with a focus on Safety, GOL's number 1 value."

The footage of the fight, which has hit the internet, shows people shouting at each other, hitting each other and pulling each other's hair. The heat of the fight reached its peak when one of the participants exposed her breasts due to her top slipping down as a result of the active movement.

After some time, the flight attendants managed to take control of the situation.

"I was already closing the doors when I saw the two slapping each other in row 20. I ran, as soon as I got there, I already got between the two, but what happens: One family had five people and the other 10. The two families started slapping each other, cursing each other," one of the flight attendants told media outlets.

All participants of the brawl were escorted off the aircraft. After a delay of almost two hours, the plane still flew to Sao Paulo, but without the rowdies.