A Delta passenger plans to sue the airline after a flight attendant allegedly slapped him across the face so loudly that it could be heard through noise-canceling headphones, his lawyer said.
Mohammad Shibli, his wife, and their two young boys were on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Fresno for his sister-in-law’s wedding on July 29 when he was allegedly slapped across the face by a flight attendant, his lawyer Ali Awad said at a press conference Tuesday.
The attack unfolded after Shibli and his wife each asked a flight attendant for water for their 2-year-old son, who was crying out of thirst, but were denied any beverage because the cart wasn’t at their rows yet, Shibli said.
Tensions escalated when the flight attendant arrived at Shibli’s row and asked if he wanted anything. Shibli, who had gotten water from a different attendant, said he didn’t want anything, but the attendant was persistent, Shibli claimed.
“I asked her to leave me alone,” Shibli said. “She then asked if I wanted the police to meet me at the gate, insinuating that she was going to have me arrested.”
When Shibli questioned her response, the flight attendant ignored him. However, she later bumped into him hard enough that the stranger in his row asked him, “What’s her deal?” Shibli said during the press conference.
Shibli says the flight attendant then “leaned closer to my ear and whispered a very vulgar word.” As she walked away, Shibli says he stood up and “responded with a few bad words.”
“It was at that time, the Delta attendant took a few steps toward me and struck me with an open palm as hard as she could,” Shibli recalled.
In a witness statement, the passenger seated directly in front of Shibli said they heard the slap through their noise-canceling headphones.
“I hear [flight attendant] talking to someone, but cannot distinguish what they are saying at all. That is when I heard a very loud ‘smack’ sound and I immediately took my right earbud out and looked behind me to see the flight attendant and a man behind me yelling at each other,” the other passenger said.
Shibli said the interaction left him feeling “helpless” in front of his son and “humiliated” as the flight lasted four more hours.
“No one should ever experience physical abuse like this, especially on a plane mid-air with nowhere to go for four hours,” he said.
Shibli said he saw law enforcement officers questioning the Delta employee after the flight landed, but he didn’t know if she had been arrested or charged. Delta confirmed to The Independent that the employee has been suspended while they investigate.
During the press conference, Shibli’s lawyer, Awad, recalled a controversy that embroiled Delta last summer when two employees were seen wearing Palestinian flag pins on their uniforms.
At the time, the airline replied to an X user who pointed it out, saying they would be “terrified” as well to see someone wearing a Palestinian flag because it didn’t reflect their “culture.”
Delta later changed its policy so that employees could only wear U.S. flag pins on their uniforms.
After bringing up the incident, Awad noted that Shibli’s wife was wearing a shirt that said “Palestine” on it at the time of the altercation on the flight.
The lawsuit, which will be filed this week, will demand every Delta employee in the country receive “education and sensitivity training on Palestine,” and that Shibli receive a day’s worth of Delta’s profits, Awad said.
Awad estimates the airline’s daily profits to be over $20 million.
“This case is not about a slap. This case is about everything that Delta has done, and continues to do, exhibiting a pattern of recklessness and negligent behavior within their company,” Awad said during the press conference.
In a statement to The Independent, a Delta spokesperson said it has launched an investigation into the incident.
“While Delta does not comment on internal investigations or pending litigation, we are taking this situation very seriously. This flight attendant has been suspended while the investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
