Panic or schizophrenia? A woman turned a plane back to the airport by refusing to travel with an “imaginary passenger”

Mental health is an issue that should be sensitized and urged to try to be empathetic. A video shot on an American Airlines plane went viral early this week and shows an upset woman with tears streaming down her face.

The passenger stands up, yells, and points to the end of the aisle, to the silence of the rest of the plane’s occupants.

The woman, wearing jeans and black flannel, talks and sometimes argues with an…imaginary person.

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“Imaginary passenger” on the plane

The situation arose on Sunday, July 2 on the plane, which had just taken off, when the passenger started arguing with a man who only “saw” her.

In Infobae, they specified that the episode took place at the Dallas Fort Worth (Texas) airport, just before takeoff.

However, the Dallas News pointed out that “the American Airlines plane was forced to return to DFW Airport because of the scandal.”

The woman, clearly upset, turned to someone only she could see. She refused to be near this so-called man. “He yelled to get off the plane.”

I tell you (…) everyone can either believe it or they can’t believe it. That (…) in the back is not real… And you can sit on this plane and you can die with it or not.

airplane passenger

Due to the tense situation, American Airlines Flight 1009, serving Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Orlando (MCO), returned to the gate due to a problem customer,” the airline confirmed to The Dallas Morning News.

In the video, as the woman screams and points to the end of the aisle, puzzled passengers, curious, turn their heads and some with less concealment than others look to see if the man who upset the passenger is there or not .

what has the woman

For some users and media, the traveler, seeing himself on the plane, had a “panic attack”. However, others doubt that he felt panic and presume he has schizophrenia.

According to the Mayo Clinic, schizophrenia is “a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally.”

They stated that it can cause a combination of hallucinations, delusions and severe disturbances in thinking and behavior, which affects daily functioning and can be disabling.

Hallucinations can involve all senses, but hearing voices is the most common hallucination.

Mayo clinic

People with schizophrenia should receive lifelong treatment, the medical institution warned.

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This is how they see the passenger of the networks

Dallas News quoted the airline as saying, “The flight was met at the gate by local police and the passenger was taken off the flight. Safety and security are our top priorities and we thank our customers for their understanding and our team members for their professionalism in handling a difficult situation.”

The passengers boarded again three hours later to fly to Orlando. From the @metal_princess86 Instagram account, they said of the woman’s viral scene, “Sometimes schizophrenia begins to manifest between the ages of 20 and 30.”

Because of incidents like this and, for example, the high suicide rates, the WHO is calling for mental health care to be strengthened.