Two American women were removed from a plane at Heathrow airport after a fight erupted over a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat.
Tensions flared at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 after a passenger wearing a red hat bearing former President Donald Trump‘s MAGA slogan became the center of a heated altercation, as the two women waited to board.
The incident reportedly escalated from verbal exchanges to a physical confrontation between the two women, aged in their 40s and 60s, on Monday. After boarding the British Airways flight bound for Austin, Texas, they were eventually removed by police.
The altercation is said to have began when the woman wearing the red MAGA hat, popularized by Trump supporters, was confronted by another passenger, who demanded the hat be removed.
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When the woman wearing the hat refused, a heated exchange of words reportedly turned into physical aggression, with punches exchanged between the two women, witnessed by passengers waiting to board the flight.
“With the US Presidential election so close, tensions are sky-high. Airline crew could not run the risk of a full-scale punch-up at 30,000ft. BA officials cannot recall a flight being delayed before due to a passenger’s baseball cap. It was extraordinary,” a Heathrow Airport source told U.K newspaper The Sun.
The confrontation persisted on board the aircraft in premium economy, prompting the flight’s captain to request assistance from the police.
Officers boarded the plane and escorted both women off the aircraft. Following their removal, the flight, BA191, due to depart at 12.10 p.m., was delayed for two hours before departing at 2:11 p.m. without the two women on board, as reported by The Sun.
“We apologised to our customers for the delay and got them on the way as quickly as possible”, a Heathrow spokesperson told The Sun.
Police said in a statement: “Shortly after 12.45 p.m. on Monday, 28 October, police at Heathrow were made aware of an incident involving two women waiting to board a plane in Terminal 5. A woman in her 40s and a woman in her 60s made counter allegations of affray. Enquiries are ongoing.”
Newsweek contacted the U.K Metropolitan Police, British Airways, and Heathrow Airport via email on Wednesday for further comment.
The MAGA hat is often characterized by a red baseball cap featuring the slogan Make America Great Again, in white embroidered lettering, although colors can vary. Some caps simply say MAGA.
The phrase was popularized during Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, with the MAGA cap often worn by Trump himself, and it has since become a culturally significant and often divisive emblem.
Many people wear the MAGA hat to express their support for Trump and his policies, and for some, the hat is seen as a representation of American conservatism and nationalism. Others see it as a symbol of controversy and political division.