Airline removes man who catcalled flight attendant

Portland — Alaska Airlines removed a passenger from a flight before it left the tarmac in Seattle on Sunday, after he catcalled a flight attendant during a flight safety demonstration.

“Today I had an experience that drove home so powerfully the way it feels to be a woman in the world today,” wrote Amber D. Nelson in a Facebook post.

“Before take-off from SeaTac the flight attendants ran through their safety rules as they always do. Not all of us were paying very close attention,” she wrote. “But a man in the row behind me changed all that by calling out ‘ooh, sexy!’ in response to a female flight attendant demonstrating how to use the life vest.”

Nelson wrote that the flight attendant said to the passenger, “You need to be respectful,” who responded, “C’mon, I’m just playing with you!”

The flight attendant then spoke to the crew and not long after that, “an affable-looking man” got on the plane and removed the passenger.

Ann Zaninovich, a spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines, said over the phone Wednesday that the account on Facebook is accurate.

“We can confirm that there was a male removed from Flight 520 from Seattle to Burbank,” she told us.

“We stand behind the actions taken by our employee,” Zaninovich added.