NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Airlines (AAL.O) on Saturday apologized to a female passenger and suspended an employee after a video showing an onboard clash over a baby stroller went viral, in the latest embarrassment for a U.S. carrier over how it treated a customer.

FILE PHOTO: American Airlines aircraft are parked at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, U.S., August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The clip, posted on Facebook on Friday by a bystander aboard the flight, shows a woman in tears with a young child in her arms, and a man emerging from his seat to confront a male flight attendant who apparently wrested the stroller from the woman.

Facebook user Surain Adyanthaya, who posted the video, wrote that the flight attendant had forcefully taken the stroller, hitting the woman with it and just missing her child. That sequence of events did not appear on the clip.

What it shows is the unidentified man standing up and yelling at the flight attendant: “You do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

The crew member then points his finger angrily and challenges the passenger to hit him. The video shows the man eventually returning to his seat.

American Airlines said in a statement it was investigating the incident, which took place before the plane took off on a flight from San Francisco to Dallas.

“We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident,” the airline said in a statement released early on Saturday.

The woman elected to take another flight and was upgraded to first class, said American.

The treatment of passengers by the airline industry returned as a national issue after a video appeared online two weeks ago showing a 69-year-old passenger being dragged off a United Airlines UAL.N flight to make room for a crew member. The fracas sparked international outrage and policy changes by the airline.

A passenger who posted a description of the latest incident on the website Reddit wrote that the flight attendant early on called for security to intervene in his dispute with the woman.

Bob Ross, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants union, which represents American Airlines workers, said in a statement that tight schedules, overcrowded planes, shrinking seats and limited overhead bin space have made it difficult for flight attendants to board passengers.

“All of these factors are related to corporate decisions beyond the control of passengers and flight attendants,” Ross said.</s>American Airlines said it is investigating an incident in which a male flight attendant reportedly upset a female passenger to the point of tears, then later was recorded getting into a heated confrontation with a male passenger who tried to come to the woman's defense.

"We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts," American Airlines spokesperson Leslie Scott said in an email to The Washington Post. "What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers."

The incident was captured on video by another passenger, Surain Adyanthaya, who uploaded the video to Facebook late Friday afternoon. The airline confirmed the incident took place Friday on American Airlines Flight 591, from San Francisco to Dallas-Ft. Worth.

"OMG! AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby," Adyanthaya wrote on Facebook. "Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her."

The video does not depict the stroller incident that Adyanthaya described, but it does show a female passenger standing at the front of the plane, sobbing uncontrollably as she holds a baby in a pink outfit. Beside her, a pilot stands mostly silent.

"You can't use violence with baby," the female passenger says, through tears, toward the plane door where some passengers can still be seen boarding. "Just give me back my stroller, please."

At first, the male flight attendant in question does not appear in the frame. In the meantime, a male passenger seated near the front of the plane can be heard getting flustered.

"No, I'm not going to sit hear and watch this stuff..." the male passenger says. He then gets out of his seat and demands to know the male flight attendant's name.

As this takes place, other passengers can be heard discussing in low voices what they just witnessed.

Moments later, the male flight attendant returns to the plane.

"Hey, bud," the male passenger who had gotten out of his seat earlier calls out, while pointing at the male flight attendant. "You do that to me and I'll knock you flat."

"Hey, you stay out of this!" the flight attendant yells back, pointing his finger back at the male passenger.

The flight attendant takes a step forward and the male passengers leaps into the aisle. The passenger with the baby can be seen ducking out of the way, shielding her baby's head. As their argument escalates, it appears as if the confrontation could get physical.

"Hit me," the flight attendant urges, motioning with his hands. "Come on, hit me."

"Tony, sit down," a woman can be heard calling out to the male passenger.

"You don't know what the story is!" the flight attendant says to the passenger.

"I don't care what the story is," the male passenger replies. "You almost hurt a baby."

American Airlines said the male flight attendant in the video had been suspended from flying while the investigation takes place.

"The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care," Scott, the airline spokeswoman, said in a statement. "In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident."

Scott said the female passenger and her children ended up choosing to take another flight and were upgraded to first class for the remainder of their international trip.

"We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident," the airline said in a statement. "We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care."</s>HOUSTON (AP) — The Latest on the confrontation on an American Airlines flight (all times local):

A passenger on an American Airlines flight says a flight attendant who has since been grounded nearly hit a baby when he jerked a stroller away from a woman holding the child.

Olivia Morgan, an executive with an education-related nonprofit, tells the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/2pQ17V5 ) that she witnessed the episode take place before a Friday afternoon flight from San Francisco to Dallas.

Morgan says when she complained about the woman’s treatment, the flight attendant pointed his finger in her face and yelled, “You stay out of it.”

A video of the incident posted on Facebook shows the sobbing woman holding a small child and saying, “You can’t use violence with a baby.” A male passenger later got in a verbal confrontation with the flight attendant.

ALSO READ: Michigan Doctors Charged In First Genital Mutilation Case In US

American Airlines says it has grounded a flight attendant who got into a verbal confrontation with a passenger after the flight attendant took a baby stroller away from another passenger.

Spokeswoman Leslie Scott says the airline is looking into whether the male flight attendant violently took away the stroller from the female passenger just before she boarded a Friday flight from San Francisco to Dallas. He has been removed from duty in the meantime.

A video taken by a passenger and posted on Facebook shows the sobbing woman holding a small child and saying, “You can’t use violence with baby.”

Later, an unidentified male passenger confronts the flight attendant, telling him, “You do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.” The flight attendant responds with “Hit me. Bring it on.”

The incident comes less than two weeks after video of a man being violently dragged off a United Express flight sparked widespread outrage.</s>(WCBD) – Another uproar from a major airline, this time it happened on an American Airlines plane.

The argument broke out between a male flight attendant and a passenger after the flight attendant reportedly hit the female passenger with a stroller while she was holding a baby.

The confrontation was all captured on video.

Witnesses say the flight attendant was “violently yanking the stroller away from the mom, nearly hitting the baby in the head.”

The male passenger was upset about the way the female passenger was being treated.

It happened on Friday during a flight from San Francisco to Dallas. The flight attendant has been suspended pending an investigation from the airline. American Airlines released the following statement:

“We are deeply sorry for the pain we caused this passenger, and her family, and any other customers affected by the incident.”

It goes on to say, “The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions.”

More stories you may like on 7News</s>HOUSTON (CBSMiami/AP) — American Airlines has grounded a flight attendant who got into a verbal confrontation with a passenger after the flight attendant took a baby stroller away from another passenger.

Spokeswoman Leslie Scott says the airline is looking into whether the male flight attendant violently took away the stroller from the female passenger just before she boarded a Friday flight from San Francisco to Dallas. He has been removed from duty in the meantime.

A video taken by a passenger and posted on Facebook shows the sobbing woman holding a small child and saying, “You can’t use violence with a baby.”

Later, an unidentified male passenger confronts the flight attendant, telling him, “You do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.” The flight attendant responds with “Hit me. Bring it on.”

The incident comes less than two weeks after video of a man being violently dragged off a United Express flight sparked widespread outrage.</s>What happens when a woman, her child and a stroller get squeezed into a tight space with a bunch of other people? Another airline catastrophe.

This one allegedly involves a mother getting smacked with the above-mentioned stroller while boarding an American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Dallas.

A Facebook video that's pulled in more than 3.3 million views appears to show the aftermath of the stroller mishap, with an unidentified woman sobbing, a male passenger confronting a flight attendant, and the attendant answering back in less-than-professional fashion.

Surain Adyanthaya, who posted the clip, said in a caption that the attendant "violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby."

The incident comes shortly after a brutal removal of a passenger from a United Airlines plane. The ejection left the passenger bloodied and humiliated, and a viral video of the event left United scrambling to explain itself.

In this latest incident, American Airlines says it's removed the flight attendant from duty while it looks into the matter.

"We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts," the company said in a statement. "What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident."</s>DALLAS — Video of an altercation on an American Airlines flight Friday shows an airline employee challenging a passenger to hit him after a flight attendant violently grabbed a woman’s stroller, according to eyewitnesses.

It’s unclear what happened before passengers on flight 591 from San Francisco to Dallas/Ft. Worth started recording, but video shared on Facebook shows a sobbing mother clutching a young child toward the front of the plane, asking employees to give back her stroller.

According to multiple witnesses, the woman, who is from Argentina and was flying internationally, brought her stroller on the plane. When the flight attendant attempted to remove the stroller from the plane, there was an altercation which resulted in the stroller striking the woman and nearly hitting her child.

Olivia Morgan was standing in the doorway of the aircraft with her 8-year-old daughter waiting to board when the altercation happened.

“The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby with the second baby in a car seat on the ground next to her,” she said.

Morgan said the flight attendant was “violent” when taking the metal stroller from the woman and nearly hit the baby with the stroller.

“He stormed by me with the stroller and I said something like, ‘What are you doing? You almost hit that baby!’ And he yelled at me to ‘stay out of it!’ just like he does in the video,” she said.

Morgan said she talked to the woman about the incident. The woman said a female flight attendant told her she could look for space to store the stroller because it folds up very small, but if there was no available space, she would need to check it at the gate.

“She was looking for space when the male attendant tried to take it away from her… and she said she told him the other attendant had told her it was okay to look,” she said.

According to the American Airlines website, small strollers can be checked at the gate but there is no policy about strollers in the overhead bin.

In the video, a male passenger can be heard saying that he’s “not going to sit here and watch this.” The passenger stands up in the aisle and asks the flight crew, “What’s the guy’s name that did that with the stroller, I want to know the guy’s name.”

Moments later, a male flight attendant boards the plane, and the passenger who stood up says to him: “Hey bud, you do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.”

The flight attendant points his finger back at the passenger, moving toward him as he fires back, “You stay out of this!”

When the passenger jumps out of his seat, the flight attendant holds his hands out and says, “Try it. Hit me. You don’t know what the story is.”

Tom Watson, who provided Tribune Media proof he was on the flight, said he was sitting in the first row behind first class.

“The lady and her two children were seated near the back of the plane. She was somehow able to get her stroller on board and back near her seat,” he said.

Watson said he’s not sure if the woman tried to put the stroller in the overhead bin. A short time later, a flight attendant approached the woman and told her she cannot have the stroller on the plane.

“She refused to let him take it and she was almost to the point of shouting,” he said.

The flight attendant then asked for security personnel, which “escalated” the situation, according to Watson.

“The flight attendant and the woman started making their way to the front of the plane. They were at the front of the plane near the crew area. The woman was holding on to the stroller and refusing to let go,” he said.

Watson said the flight attendant’s tone was “aggressive” and the woman was refusing to let go of the stroller, which escalated the situation.

The flight attendant then responded by jerking the stroller from the woman, knocking her in the head and nearly hitting the children, according to Watson.

“The flight attendant should not have been so aggressive and should have been more aware of the kids,” he said.

The woman was escorted off the plane and the flight attendant returned to the plane a short time later.

“The woman knows not to bring the stroller on a plane, she refused to let it go… she was shouting, so she is also at fault in my opinion,” he said. “But don’t get me wrong, the flight attendant should be way more professional than he was.

According to the airline, the woman elected to take another flight and was given upgraded accommodations for the flight.

The airline issued the following statement regarding the incident:

We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family’s needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip. The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.

The video was taken the same day it was reported that United CEO Oscar Munoz wouldn’t be promoted to chairman after video went viral of an incident two weeks ago in which a doctor was bloodied and dragged off an overbooked United flight.</s>HOUSTON — American Airlines says it has grounded a flight attendant who got into a verbal confrontation with a passenger after the flight attendant took a baby stroller away from another passenger.

Spokeswoman Leslie Scott says the airline is looking into whether the male flight attendant violently took away the stroller from the female passenger just before she boarded a Friday flight from San Francisco to Dallas. He has been removed from duty in the meantime.

A video taken by a passenger and posted on Facebook shows the sobbing woman holding a small child and saying, “You can’t use violence with baby.”

"OMG! AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby," Surain Adyanthaya captioned the video. "Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her. AA591 from SFO to DFW."

Later, an unidentified male passenger confronts the flight attendant, telling him, “You do that to me and I’ll knock you flat.” The flight attendant responds with “Hit me. Bring it on.”

The incident comes less than two weeks after video of a man being violently dragged off a United Express flight sparked widespread outrage.</s>Just when you thought it was safe to fly again.

First, it was a United passenger being dragged off a plane. This time, it's American Airlines under scrutiny after a passenger posted a video on Facebook showing an angry confrontation between a passenger and flight attendant.

Another passenger, Surain Adyanthaya, posted the video Friday afternoon and gave her explanation for what prompted the hostility as the plane got ready to take off from San Francisco to Dallas.

"OMG! AA Flight attendant violently took a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby."

While it's clear there's a crying woman holding a baby, there's no footage of the flight attendant actually taking her stroller, so it's hard to tell what actually happened.

But another passenger backed up the story to Tribune Media, saying, "The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby, with the second baby in a car seat on the ground next to her. He stormed by me with the stroller and I said something like, ‘What are you doing? You almost hit that baby!’"

A spokesperson for American Airlines told Mashable, "We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts."

"What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident ... After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip."

The trouble continued when the flight attendant returned to the plane after briefly leaving. A male passenger, Tony Fierro, stood up and said, "Hey, bud. You do that to me, and I’ll knock you flat."

"Hey, you stay out of this!” the flight attendant said back.

The two men stood chest to chest, like a fight could break out any minute.

The flight attendant then said, "Hit me. Come on, hit me!"

Regardless of what happened with the stroller, that's not a good look. (New motto suggestion: "American Airlines. Come at me, bro.")

Later, Fierro explained his actions to the local ABC affiliate in Dallas, where he's from.

"A baby almost got hurt," he said. "That's what just fired me up, so that was it. I don't want to make a big deal about it."

The flight attendant has "been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident," American Airlines said.

"The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care," the company said. "In short, we are disappointed by these actions."

The internet coped the only way it could: with jokes.

After the United Airlines fiasco, it seemed like things couldn't get worse. Let's just hope this trend stops here.</s>American Airlines suspended a flight attendant after a video emerged of an altercation between him, several passengers and a mother carrying her child on Friday.

The video, uploaded onto Facebook by Surain Adyanthaya, shows a woman crying while holding her baby allegedly after the flight attendant "violently took a stroller," "hitting her and just missing the baby."

It also shows another passenger who seemed to be defending the woman and yelling the flight attendant, saying, "You do that to me and I'll knock you flat."

The flight attendant, who appeared angry at the passenger's remarks, challenged this passenger, saying "Hit me, come on," as his colleagues held him back.

The altercation occurred on a flight taking off from San Francisco for Dallas-Fort Worth. Americans Airlines said it was investigating the incident in a statement on Friday .

"What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident."

The airline company also said they are "taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip."

The video emerged just weeks after another one of Dr. David Dao was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight went viral. That video sparked national outcry, and a lawyer representing Dao said he suffered several injuries as a result.

United Airlines has since apologized for the incident, and the three Chicago Aviation officers involved in the incident have been suspended.
American Airlines announces it is investigating a viral video of an incident on a San Francisco to Dallas flight which shows a male flight attendant upsetting a female passenger, who he had allegedly forcefully taken a baby buggy from, and threatening to fight a male passenger. The American Airlines employee has been suspended.