After refusing to wear a face mask on a Delta Airlines flight heading from Salt Lake City to San Francisco in the US, a 44-year-old man was arrested, a media report said. The man identified as Joshua Colby Council was rushing to embark on his fight at Salt Lake City International Airport when a gate agent stopped and asked him to put on a face mask.
To this, he declined and continued boarding the plane. The captain and flight attendants, once onboard, even asked him to wear a mask, but he declined.
To escort the man off the plane, the workers then called airport security. He declined to get up from his seat. He eventually left the plane when all the other passengers got up and walked out, as per reports.
The incident delayed the flight for 45 minutes.
“We apologize to customers for the delay on Wednesday's Flight 1382 as a passenger was removed from the flight for non-compliance with masks," the airlines said in a statement.
The man who was jailed for this act was later released the next morning from prison. The COVID-19 death toll in the US is now more than 264,000. According to an overall forecast released this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 60,000 people could lose their lives over the next three weeks owing to the pandemic.