Date: 201704
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Light Transport
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Taxi
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Reporter qualification: Flight Attendant Current
Human factors: Situational Awareness
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
Detector: Person Flight Attendant
When detected: Taxi
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: The flight was originally scheduled to leave at XA:00 and was delayed to XA:16 due to crew rest. After arriving to the aircraft and completing my preflight the Captain that was riding in the jump seat for training informed me that there was a small maintenance delay. We ended up boarding shortly thereafter. It was the first flight of the day but the taxi was unusually long and passengers were asking me questions I had no answer to because no announcements were made. Finally I called back to ask if everything was alright. The pilot said that everything was fine and it was just gonna be a long taxi. We sat there for what felt like an hour. Passengers are becoming more upset seeing as they did not receive any updates or announcements. After that I only heard from the pilots before takeoff to tell me to be seated for departure. When we got into the air I had the usual questions from passengers asking when we were landing and if they were going to be making their connections. The pilot made an announcement that air traffic control would be holding us for about ten extra minutes in the air. Around XC:00 is when I received my before landing chime. At this point the passengers were very irate. Particularly passengers in seat YYA; YYB; and XXB. When we landed about 10 minutes later the taxi was taking a while and every time the plane would jerk or brake the passengers would try to take off their seat belts or get up. So I made an announcement again letting them know they needed to remain seated until the seat-belt sign was extinguished. At that point YYB gets upset and starts conversing with XXB telling XXB how it's amateur hour back there and that's why they are missing their trip. At this point is when XXB unbuckles their seat-belt and leans over the seat pointing and cursing at me red in the face saying 'This is the worst flight ever. It's even worse coming back to [the departure airport]. [This airline] sucks. You guys are terrible. Terrible.' I told XXB they needed to sit down and put their seat-belt back on. Passenger YYB and XXB continued to ignore me and XXB continued to be belligerent. I called back to the flight deck and told the pilot that if this passenger continues to be this way I will be needing security to meet us at the aircraft. After that call was made to the flight deck; the Pilot made an announcement saying we were about 5 minutes away from the gate. We arrived at the hardstand parking shortly thereafter. I received the chime to open the main cabin door and waited for the prop be tied as [the ground crew] connected the step and set up the cones for them to deplane. When the prop was tied and I got the ok to deplane the flight deck door opened. The pilot that was in the jump seat came out of the flight deck and stood in the corridor by the lavatory right next to me while we deplaned. Shortly after a few passengers deplane the passenger in XXB walks up to me near the flight deck and starts yelling and put their hands not even 3 inches away from my face speaking loudly and being abrasive pointing and yelling at both the Pilot and I. As XXB starts getting closer to me I feel unsafe so I tell them they need to move away from me and I raise my hands to cover my face because XXB continues to raise their hands in my face and keeps raising their voice being very disruptive and threatening. As soon as I did so the Pilot tells me to turn my face away; ignore them; and just let them deplane. Nothing was done to protect me from this violent; disruptive; and threatening passenger that was seconds away from assaulting me.




Synopsis: Air Carrier Flight Attendant reported of a disruptive passenger that got in her face for reasons she could not control.