‘Don’t Point Your Finger at Us!’: Resurfaced Video Shows Delta Pilot Demanding Black Woman Take Off Her Hat or be Kicked Off Plane, Then Belittling Her After She Does, Sparking Online Criticism

A resurfaced video that was recently reposted and reshared thousands of times shows a Delta Air Lines pilot confronting a female passenger and demanding she remove a hat with a profanity written on it.

The video, originally posted in 2020, shows the pilot approaching a seated passenger and telling her that her hat is not allowed on the flight because it has vulgar language written on it. He demands that she keep it off her head for the entirety of the flight or risk being escorted from the plane.

“Please tell me where that’s posted. How could I have known that?” the woman asks.

“I’m the captain of the airplane; that’s where it’s posted. Delta has guidelines, and I don’t have to explain them to you,” the pilot tells the woman. You can take it off, or you can leave the airplane. It is inappropriate, and I’m not gonna take vulgar language on the flight,” he adds, referencing a baseball-style cap in the woman’s possession with the word “F***” on it.

“Do you understand?” the pilot asks.

“Yeah, I heard you, sir,” the woman replies.

The woman complies and removes the hat, but the Delta pilot continues to question whether she understands his directive.

“You got it?” the pilot says with his finger pointed at the woman.

“Don’t point your finger at us,” the woman states.

“OK. So which is it? Tell me now,” the captain responds.

“Tell you what? The hat is off. There’s nothing to tell you,” the woman answers back. “The hat is right here in my lap,” she adds, pointing the camera down to the hat in question.

“Tell me it’s off for the entire flight,” the pilot says. “I got six kids, I raised 10 kids, I know better,” he patronizes.

“I’m not a child, sir. The hat is in my lap.”

A part of the video showing only one minute of the interaction was recently reposted to X and TikTok. It ends as the pilot continues to question whether the woman will leave the hat off.

Other longer videos of the interaction show the pilot threatening to call TSA to remove the woman unless she promises not to put the hat back on for the entire flight. It’s unclear whether she was penalized or removed from the plane.

There were several mixed reactions to the interaction. Some people sided with the pilot, while others thought he went overboard in his admonishment, especially after the woman took the hat off.

“Who wears a hat like that on a plane?” someone asked on TikTok.

“She said OK that should have been it. This captain is on a power trip,” another TikTok user commented.

“How Does Delta have guidelines that you don’t have to explain?” one comment asked.

According to Delta’s contract of carriage , updated in March 2024, the airline may refuse to transport or remove passengers from its aircraft “when the passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”

The pilot told the woman that he directed flight attendants to order her to remove the hat after seeing her board the plane with it. When he approached her, he told her there were “families on board” and that the cap was “inappropriate.”

‘Don’t Point Your Finger at Us!’: Resurfaced Video Shows Delta Pilot Demanding Black Woman Take Off Her Hat or be Kicked Off Plane, Then Belittling Her After She Does, Sparking Online Criticism