"Single Worst Experience Flying" — Dad Kicked off Flight for Taking Family Photo on Tarmac

Jimmy Mitchell, who runs the family-travel-themed TikTok account @themothfamily, says that he was kicked off of a Jetstar Australia flight that was departing from Sydney, all because he snapped a family photo while on the tarmac.

The man says an airline employee called him an "idiot" for taking the picture and when he questioned the woman for her choice in language, he was prohibited from boarding the flight and separated from his family, forcing him to take a different plane to reunite with them.

While he was visibly upset in his video and couldn't believe the treatment he received from the Jetstar worker, several TikTok users thought that he should've known better than to take a picture while on the tarmac as this is a common rule for airline travelers.

"Okay oh my God this is the single worst experience I've ever had flying in my life. I try to get on the plane. I take a photo with my kids as I get on my plane in flight mode, and the lady calls me an idiot as I get on the plane," by "lady" he explains in a text overlay for the video, he means an employee for the airline.

"So I go down there and I go what did you call me? And then she's like no you can't get on the plane anymore you got to stay here. And then I go and ask if I can go and tell my wife I can't get on the plane that I can't get on the plane cause she's got my boarding pass," he says, before relaying that the airline worker wasn't exactly being accommodating.

"Nope I don't wanna hear it I don't wanna hear it," he says the worker kept repeating. "You get off the plane, you're being charged with assault the police are coming to get you," the TikToker said the airline employee told him.

"What am I supposed to do my family's on the flight? This is incredible, this is the worst I've ever been treated flying," the man says into the camera.

"I've never been called an idiot, firstly as I'm boarding the plane. And secondly, when she said it in front of my kids and I go and confront her about it, she's just, flying off the handle flipped her lid. I don't know if she's having a bad day or something, but this is absolutely incredible," the man says, breathlessly talking into the camera.

The dad continued to recount his awful experience with Jetstar Australia: "This is the worst experience I've ever had flying and as you guys know we travel full time, we do about 25 flights a year and I've never had anyone call me an idiot as I'm boarding a flight, this is absolutely incredible," he says to close out the video.

He further detailed his shock at the treatment he received from the Jetstar employee in a caption for his video, writing: "It takes a lot to get me revved up, but verbally abusing me in front of my wife and kids is my limit @Jetstar Australia"

Several commenters remarked that there must've been additional details to the story that he was leaving out: "There’s more to this story than he’s telling," one person wrote while another remarked, "There has to be something else to the story you’re not telling!"

"Can we have the full story please?" another replied, to which the dad said he covered in a follow-up clip.

In a 14-minute clip, he detailed the encounter he had between himself and the Jet Star employee and revealed that he snapped a family photo of himself and his family while on the tarmac.

It's at that point that the Jetstar employee called him an "idiot" for taking a picture, which is how the verbal altercation escalated in the first place that ultimately culminated in the dad being not allowed to get on his flight.

Several commenters who replied to his video after hearing his full story doubled down on stating that they didn't believe the airline employee was at fault for the way they handled the situation and that the dad ultimately should've known better than to snap a photo while on the tarmac.

Wales Online covered Jimmy's incident as well and wrote that there are indeed rules many airports implement that prohibit passengers from snapping pictures while on a plane tarmac.

In a post penned by The Conversation covering this very topic of phone / camera usage while on plane tarmacs, these stipulations seem to have been implemented in response to the September 11th World Trade Center terrorist attacks, and have been held over at many airplane terminals and travel hubs all over the world.

The idea that someone could be snapping photographs for reconnaissance under the guise of tourism / traveling and having a good time seems to be the impetus behind these rulings different airlines have when it comes to phone usage while on the tarmac.