A passenger on a recent American Airlines flight shared a video of a confrontation with a flight attendant about using a vape onboard.
The passenger, who goes by Kobe Peter “Twoey King” Nguyen on social media, posted an Instagram video on Aug. 4 capturing part of the incident.
The clip included a confrontation between Nguyen and two unidentified flight attendants, who both warned Nguyen that smoking onboard was prohibited.
At the beginning of the video, Nguyen said that he was “sitting on the toilet” when the flight attendant opened up the door to the airplane’s bathroom. Text on the video reads, “Airline attendant forcibly opens bathroom door on passenger.”
“You can keep saying you’re sorry, but I care about all these passengers,” the flight attendant said. “So, it’ll be on you. And I see you’re recording me right now.”
At this point, the flight attendant appeared to reach for his phone while Nguyen pulled away, telling the flight attendant she was “not allowed to do that.” Nguyen then said the flight attendant “put her hands” on him and tried to grab his phone, which led to another flight attendant getting involved.
The second flight attendant told Nguyen in the clip, “You’re not supposed to be smoking in here.”
While Nguyen continued to scold the first flight attendant for allegedly touching him, the second flight attendant reiterated that passengers “cannot smoke in here.”
Nguyen then demanded that the flight attendant apologize or he would release the video publicly.
“Do not touch me. You do not get to touch a passenger,” Nguyen said. “I’m actually going to call the police when I get back to the ground on you. You do not put your hands on a passenger.”
At the end of the video, Nguyen began walking away from the bathroom on the flight and down the aisle, telling passengers that the flight attendant had “assaulted” him.
Nguyen released a statement on social media on Aug. 7 following the incident, writing, “On August 4, 2025, during American Airlines Flight 2860, I experienced one of the most humiliating moments of my life.”
“While I was in the lavatory, a flight attendant forcibly unlocked and opened the door twice — even after I asked for more time — exposing me to the cabin. Later, she seized my phone and stopped my recording,” the statement continued. “No passenger should ever go through this. I’m speaking out to ensure accountability and protect passenger rights.”
In a followup post Nguyen shared on Aug. 9, he said he felt his “privacy and dignity were violated” and is “seeking accountability” from American Airlines.
In a statement shared with NBC News, American Airlines said, “A customer on American Airlines flight 2860 with service from Phoenix (PHX) to San Francisco (SFO) was removed from the aircraft upon arrival at SFO due to disruptive behavior.”
“We thank our customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience,” the statement continued.
The passenger was later escorted out by the San Francisco Police Department when the flight arrived in California.
During an Aug. 8 appearance on Fox 10 Phoenix, Nguyen admitted to vaping on the flight and issued an apology, sharing, “I’m sorry to all of the other passengers, there’s no excuse for what happened.”
TODAY.com reached out to Nguyen for comment and has not heard back by the time of publication.
In the comment section on the post, Nguyen received backlash from viewers, with one Instagram user writing, “So… you were breaking the law & instead of taking accountability you just berated a woman doing her job?”
“Crazy to film video evidence that you violated federal law and then upload it to play the victim,” another commenter said. “Absolutely wild stuff.”
According to American Airlines’ policies, usage of electronic cigarettes, including vapor cigarettes and e-cigarettes, is restricted on flights.
Per the airline’s website, electronic cigarettes cannot be checked as “some electronic cigarettes use lithium ion batteries.” They can be in a passenger’s carry-on bag, but they cannot be used onboard on any flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration says that vapes and e-cigarettes are “considered dangerous goods due to their risk of smoke, fire and extreme heat.” While the devices should be kept in carry-on luggage, the FAA notes that they should “never be used or charged in the aircraft.”
Christina Ling, a former flight attendant for a major Canadian airline and founder of the Flight Attendant Institute, tells TODAY.com in a phone interview that the flight attendants in the video “did exactly what they needed to do.”
The primary role as a member of the cabin crew is ensure safety for everyone onboard.
“We are there for safety and to enforce any rules and regulations brought forth by the governing body,” she says. “The cabin crew were focused on making sure that no fire broke out and enforcing the rules of no vaping.”
Ling contextualizes the flight attendants’ response to vaping. “Any kind of smoking, vaping or any activities such as those are a federal offense,” Ling says. “They pose enormous risk to not only the crew and the passengers, but the aircraft itself.”
Ling says that fire is “one of the biggest fears that cabin crew” because flight attendants cannot call the fire department in the case of emergencies while in-flight.
“People on the ground, if it’s an emergency, we can call the fire department to come and assist,” Ling adds. “We can’t do that at 41,000 feet. If we are over the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean, it takes time for us to locate an airport. It takes time for us to make an emergency landing, and we don’t have that time for any kind of fire.”
On planes, Ling says that the bathrooms have “very, very, very sensitive smoke detectors” and cabin crew will “jump into action” if the detector goes off in an emergency situation to ensure the safety of the passengers.
Ling says in the case of an incident onboard, cabin crew will take action to ensure that nothing is “going to pose a risk to anyone.”
“We’re trained to deescalate situations,” Ling explains. “We’re going to do what we have to do in order to keep the passengers, the crew and the aircraft safe.”
Ling also notes that cabin crew do not make up the rules onboard, but they are taught to follow them.
“Our training is to keep everyone safe,” Ling says. “If a flight attendant is asking nicely to follow the rules, please do it, because it’s for everyone’s safety. We just want a pleasant flight. Everyone wants to get from point A to point B safely and we don’t have to have any kind of altercations or situations.”
Ling advises not to film flight attendants onboard, adding, “Anytime flight attendants perceive a threat to the safety of the passengers crew and aircraft, we are going to take that threat seriously and jump into action based upon our training.”
