EasyJet, a European budget airline, has become the latest airline to have to go into damage control after getting dumped on, following an incident where someone on their ground staff popped a passenger in the face who also happened to be holding a baby. (Though, frankly, the narrative of this story could have just as easily been passenger holding baby shoves airport worker since The Sun had video showing what appeared to be just that moments prior to the punch. A lot of our media brethren seemed to have not watched or made any sort of note of that).
Additionally, The Sun notes that a witness told them the worker had earlier knocked the same man's phone out of his hand after he had tried to take a picture of him (which is probably what that hand wave was).
The blow went down at Nice airport in France, and allegedly occurred after the passenger complained about a flight delay for their trip to London that was anywhere between 11 and 13 hours (depending on who you believe). Arabella Arkwright, who shot the below picture and posted it to Twitter, said "It was awful the whole thing. I just can't believe people can behave like that." Sounds like she's new to budget airlines:
Arkwright went on to tell CNN that her husband restrained the employee while waiting for police to show up. The man who was on the receiving end of the punch was initially taken away but was allowed to go back to the flight when it eventually took off. Arkwright adds that the dude had a visible mark from the altercation on his face.
As for EasyJet, they denied that the worker was employed by them. Instead they stated that his checks were written by a subcontractor named Samsic:
The airport also did their best to nip this as closely to the bud as possible.
"Nice Airport confirms the altercation last night between a passenger and an agent of a subcontracting company. The police was called immediately and took in charge both of them," they said in a statement on Facebook. "Whatever the circumstances, the airport management firmly condemns this incident and has immediately asked that this staff member to be suspended. The images of the CCTV cameras were transmitted to the DDPAF which will determine after investigation the exact circumstances and the follow-up to this incident."
On that note the employee reportedly was suspended. Not exactly a shocking revelation...but a pertinent detail nonetheless.
