Delta Pilot Demands Black Passenger Remove Hat Or 'Leave The Airplane' In Resurfaced Video

A video of a Delta Air Lines pilot berating and belittling a Black woman as he demanded she remove the hat on her head has resurfaced online.

The video first made waves in 2020. It captures a white male pilot standing in an aircraft’s aisle and arguing with a seated passenger, the Black woman. The clip initially recorded their dispute over the woman’s hat, which said “f**k.”

The pilot said the woman needed to remove her hat, and she asked for evidence from Delta’s guidelines that her cap was unacceptable. The two went back and forth as the captain demanded that the Black woman concede to him despite her already taking off the hat. As the captain continued, he insisted that the woman promise to keep the hat off for the rest of the flight or risk being deplaned.

“I’m the captain of the airplane, that’s where it’s posted,” he clapped back at the woman’s request for where she could find a relevant Delta rule about her hat. “Delta has guidelines, and I don’t have to explain them to you.”

“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 added.

As things escalated, the woman told the pilot, “Don’t point your finger at us.”

The pilot continued to pressure the Black woman into agreeing to his terms. He said, “Tell me it’s off for the entire flight. I have six kids, I raised 10 kids—I know better.”

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

A clip of the incident was reposted on August 1 on X. It has garnered over 2.5 million views and received over 1,000 replies.

What Else Is There To Know About The Delta Pilot And Black Woman Hat Incident? How Did Social Media React?

Around the beginning of the video, the pilot says he requested that flight attendants ask the woman to remove her hat. That was before he came to do it himself.

The Black woman was seemingly the person who recorded the heated interaction with the pilot. Delta tweeted a response to a clip of the incident back in 2020. The carrier noted that it had “followed up with those directly involved.” In part, the airline’s statement said, “Delta does not condone discrimination of a person or group for any reason. As a global carrier with a diverse workforce, serving a diverse customer base, we are committed to treating all passengers equally.”

The carrier’s response was to a tweet that identified the pilot as Captain Dennis Reilly.

A contract of carriage is a terms and conditions document between an airline and its passengers. In Delta’s, underneath the airline’s reasons for refusal to transport, it includes, “When the passenger’s conduct, attire, hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.”

Many of the tweet replies to the resurfaced video shared similar sentiments that the pilot was unnecessarily aggressive. See some of X users’ responses to the clip below.