American Airlines temporarily bars traveler over drama caused by his refusal to wear a mask

Mandatory face masks for airline flights are already being challenged on planes, putting carriers in the precarious position of following through with harsh penalties announced earlier this week.

On Thursday, American Airlines temporarily barred a New York man from flying with the airline following a social media blowup over his refusal to wear a mask during a flight to Dallas the day before.

Passenger Brandon Straka, a New York hair stylist who describes himself on Twitter as a “former liberal” and founder of the WalkAway Campaign, which encourages defections from the Democratic Party, wore a mask to board the New York-to-Seattle flight that connected in Dallas.

He took off the mask after boarding, prompting American Airlines crew to remove him from the plane and book him on a later flight. He posted a video to Twitter after his removal, contending the crew unjustly wanted to force him to wear a mask.

American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said the Fort Worth-based carrier determined that Straka failed to comply with its mask policy and crew member instructions.

“Mr. Straka will be permitted to fly with us once face coverings are no longer required for customers,” Feinstein said in a statement.

After mandating that customers wear masks more than a month ago, airlines cracked down on stubborn travelers this week with threats that passengers could be prohibited from future flights if they didn’t abide by face-covering rules.

On a separate flight Wednesday, a New York Times reporter said on Twitter that there was a “mutiny” among passengers on his flight from Dallas to Tulsa because a man didn’t want to wear a mask.

The CDC has asked that people wear face masks in public to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Every major carrier has required that masks be worn on board, but for the first few weeks -- in order to keep flights moving -- airlines didn’t enforce the rules once planes had pulled back from terminals

That changed this week when a coalition of airlines said there would be increased penalties, with American, Delta and United all saying passengers could lose future flight privileges for not complying. Dallas-based Southwest said it’s making passengers sign a “health declaration” that they will comply with rules, including face masks.

But with more than 441,000 passengers entering U.S. airports on Wednesday, there were bound to be some that didn’t agree with the policies.

Straka’s encounter was first reported by Forbes. He tweeted Thursday morning that he’s been “inundated with death threats, attacks on social media and email.”

“The past 24 hrs has proven conclusively to me what I already knew,” he wrote. “... None of these ppl have asked if I there’s a reason why I couldn’t wear the mask. They are just another arm of the left’s rageful mob.”

In a video describing his experience, Straka said an American Airlines employee apologized to him after he got off the plane for asking about medical conditions.

“I have never had this happen before where I was told this was the law and they took me off the plane,” Straka said. “This is insane, literally these people have gone absolutely nuts. They are going to force me to wear a mask.”

The plane left from LaGuardia four minutes late but still managed to arrive early at DFW Airport after the incident.

Airlines said exceptions will be made to mask policies for those with medical conditions and to allow passengers to eat. There is no federal rule requiring airline passengers to wear face masks, a point that airline unions are taking issue with.

“The [Federal Aviation Administration] needs a rule mandating face masks,” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association representing American Airlines’ 15,000 pilots. “We may have very good people surrounding that passenger that become very passionate about the risk they are being placed in.”

The Allied Pilots Association was critical of the initial face mask mandate because there were no penalties. The union applauded airlines this week for increasing enforcement. But Tajer said that federal officials need to step up with a rule to resolve any ambiguity.

“It’s a rare few that have decided to make this their choice,” Tajer said. “It’s not fair to all the other passengers for the Department of Transportation and the FAA to not join us in this.”

On Wednesday, FAA administrator Stephen Dickson told a U.S. Senate committee that “passengers should wear face coverings while traveling by air, for their own protection and the protection of those around them.”

But he also said that the FAA’s “space is safety and not public health” so the agency will not be mandating face masks.