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- A viral TikTok showed a pair of women allegedly causing a stir on a Southwest Airlines flight.
- According to the TikTok creator, one of the two yelled at passengers to switch seats with them.
- The TikTok creator alleged that the women delayed the flight and were eventually removed.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A viral TikTok video appeared to show two women ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight after one of them allegedly yelled at other passengers to demand they get an aisle seat.
The clip was first posted on July 15 and has garnered over 600,000 views and almost 50,000 likes. The creator, who goes by the handle @official_norcal_mom, alleged that the purported incident occurred on a flight from Sacramento to San Diego.
In the video, the creator, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, referred to the two women as "Karen" and "Karen 2.0" in on-screen text.
"Karen" is a term used to describe a white woman who has an inappropriate public outburst that others deem as overdramatic or coming from a place of privilege. Insider has previously reported on several viral "Karen" incidents.
At the start of the video, which did not fully capture how the event unfolded, the TikTok creator wrote in on-screen text that the purported incident began after the pair of women asked passengers to move so they could have an aisle seat.
Southwest Airlines has a "pick a seat" policy which allows passengers to take any seat that's available when they board the aircraft.
According to the TikTok creator's on-screen text, one of the two women allegedly started yelling at passengers to request they switch seats with her.
Toward the start of the video, the women stood in the middle of the aisle speaking to a flight attendant, who could be heard telling the pair that "we can't have nobody yelling" when there are "families" and "little kids" on the flight.
In response, one of the women could be heard explaining that she was trying to "make [an] announcement."
Then, another flight attendant could be heard asking the women to return to the jetway, which is the moving bridge that connects airplanes to the boarding gate.
One of the women, whom the TikTok creator later alleged was the daughter, could be heard saying in reply, "It's okay, we'll just go sit down, she [the alleged mother] can just cry and scream on the plane. She's going to grab onto you and scream and cry."
Then, the women appeared to walk down the aisle and sit down.
In response to the "scream and cry" remark, a flight attendant could be heard saying to one of the women, "Ma'am, if you're going to say things like that, then we have to put you on a different plane."
At the end of the TikTok, the two women appeared to grab their luggage and were reportedly ejected from the aircraft, according to the Daily Mail and other outlets.
According to the TikToker's on-screen text, other passengers applauded when the women were allegedly removed.
Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Insider has not been able to identify the women in the video.
The alleged incident comes as instances of unruly plane passengers have increased in the last year, with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reiterating in a recent press release that it has a "zero-tolerance policy toward passengers who cause disturbances on flights, fail to obey flight crew instructions in violation of the FAA's regulations, or engage in conduct proscribed by federal law."
Read more stories from Insider's Digital Culture desk here.
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