Airlines don’t tend to mess around. If you cause a problem, they won’t think twice before kicking you off the plane—and maybe even criminally charging you.
Thankfully, most people know how to behave themselves mid-air. As a result, incidents are relatively rare. Still, “rare” does not mean that they don’t happen. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration reports that there have been an average of around 2,000 unruly passenger incidents annually since 2022.
Now, one woman has documented the aftermath of her own unruly passenger incident. The twist? She’s the unruly passenger.
Why Did This Woman Get Tackled By TSA?
In a video with over 5.3 million views, TikTok user Emily Ball (@emily_ball) shows the interior of an airplane.
“The chances of getting kicked off a plane are low,” she writes in the video’s overlay text.
She then shows several clips of herself crying.
“But never zero (i actually got kicked off),” the overlay text continues. In the caption, she adds, “moral of story: don’t leave the plane.”
Ball later posted a storytime video clarifying what she says happened on the plane.
According to Ball, she was on her flight when she realized that she left her wallet in the terminal.
“They told me to go, like, leave the plane to go back out and get my wallet,” Ball claims. “So, I just open the door to leave. Like, I came back out here, and I think I, like, violated TSA.”
In a comment, Ball claims that exiting the plane meant opening both the plane door and the gate doors.
What Happened Next?
After making her way through the doors, Ball says she was tackled by TSA agents.
“They’re like, ‘You can’t go on this plane. It’s a violation. You’re supposed to knock,’” she recalls. “I just forgot my wallet, I was panicking. I couldn’t — I’m not gonna fly to Miami without my ID.”
Despite “begging” and “pleading,” the TSA did not allow her to reboard her flight. Not only that, but the police were called.
Finally, Ball says she was able to rebook her flight for free.
What Should You Do If You Forget Something At The Gate?
Ball claims that a flight attendant told her to open the door. This is exceedingly unlikely; instead, it’s possible that the flight attendant tried to advise her on how to resolve the situation, and she simply misinterpreted the directions.
As Ball’s experience shows, the solution to “I forgot something in the terminal” is not “opening the plane door and walking back to the gate.”
Generally speaking, once the airplane doors have been closed, they are not to be opened again until the plane lands at its destination. As noted on the American Airlines website, “Once the door is shut, it will not be reopened unless there is health, safety or security issue.”
That said, airlines understand that issues like these can happen. That’s why the best course of action in this situation is telling a flight attendant, then following their directions exactly. It’s possible that the item can be brought to the plane directly. An airline may also decide to ask the passenger to deplane and rebook their flight after retrieving their item.
Has This Happened Before?
Across the internet, numerous users have shared stories of leaving items at the gate.
In one case, a man was allowed to deplane, get it, and return—but was told that should not have been allowed.
Another internet user claimed that their father left his passport at the gate but only realized it after the plane doors had closed and the flight had started to leave the airport. While airline staff were able to locate and hold onto the passport, the family was still forced to fly all the way to their international destination, then fly back to retrieve the passport. They also had to rebook their travel at their own expense.
Commenters Aren’t Sympathetic
In the comments section, users were shocked by the fact that Ball allegedly opened the airplane door.
“No way you just opened the door,” said a user.
“If the crew member actually, and specifically told you to ‘open the door,’ then you can submit a complaint. but if they said ‘go back to TSA’ and you just assumed and opened the door yourself, then unfortunately i don’t think there’s any coming back from that,” stated another. “You could still send an email and tell them to be more clear innfuture.. but yeah.”
“Omg I have never heard of anyone opening a plane door and I work for an airline for seven years,” offered a third. “I don’t even know how you were able to do that without a flight attendant stopping you what were they doing?”
@emily_ball Replying to @Cici never thought this video would make it off my private story
BroBible reached out to Ball via email.