A dad’s photo of his family boarding a flight ended with the family being kicked off the plane.
Jimmy Mitchell’s quick holiday snap turned into a huge vacation headache.
On 3 April 2024, the well‑travelled Australian and his wife, Pauline, were shepherding their two youngsters up a set of outdoor stairs to a Jetstar jet bound for Brisbane.
Keen to mark the moment before they embarked on a connecting cruise, Mitchell raised his phone, clicked, and, without realising it, ignited a confrontation he would later brand ‘one of the most traumatic experiences’ of his years in the air.
Unbeknownst to him, a public‑address reminder had just crackled across the gate area forbidding handset use while the aircraft was refuelling.
Mitchell, wearing noise‑cancelling headphones, did not hear a word, he tells the New York Post.
There was, he insists, neither signage nor ground staff gesturing for travellers to keep electronics pocketed.
In his telling, a cabin crew member spotted the photo‑op, marched over, and punctured the family’s excitement by labelling him an ‘idiot.’
He remembers freezing mid‑stair, stunned that a simple snapshot had drawn such a reaction.
“This is the worst experience I’ve ever had flying,” he later declared to followers on TikTok.
Mitchell says he challenged the attendant over the insult, only to be informed he would not be permitted to board.
“I try and get on the plane, I take a photo of my kids … and the lady calls me an idiot,” he recounts in the now‑viral clip, adding that the staffer repeated: “You can’t take photos on the tarmac, you can’t take photos on the tarmac.”
When he protested, she allegedly warned that police would meet him inside the terminal.
“If she had literally just said anything else, like ‘get off your phone,’ I would have done it,” he reflected.
Back in the concourse, passports and boarding cards were trapped with Pauline on the aircraft, and Mitchell stewed until airline supervisors reversed the decision.
He eventually found his seat ‘after cooler heads prevailed,’ though the adrenaline left him trembling and, by his admission: “Almost reduced to tears because it was that embarrassing.”
He remains incensed that ground personnel, in his view, barred him from explaining the delay to his family: “The way they treated Pauline and the kids and not allowing me to communicate with them what was going on, was completely unacceptable.”
Jetstar has opened an internal inquiry.
“All our customers and team members have the right to feel respected when flying with us or when at work and we’re looking into what took place in this instance,” a spokesperson told News.com.au.
Online observers are divided, with some urging the father to ‘take it further,’ and others retorting: “It’s a restricted area … no phones on the tarmac.”
Nonetheless, most agree on one point: the alleged use of the word ‘idiot’ was, as one commenter put it, ‘unacceptable.’