Passengers turn on cabin crew for kicking woman off flight

Passengers on board a US plane have leapt to the defence of a woman by booing cabin crew after she was reportedly kicked off a flight for missing an instruction to sit down.

The American Airlines flight was set to fly to Portland, Oregon yesterday, only for take-off to be temporarily delayed so the unnamed woman could be booted off.

"This can't be legal, I didn't do anything," the tearful woman says in a video of the incident uploaded online.

The ejection was reportedly sparked by the woman not hearing a male flight attendant tell her to sit down.

After complaining to another flight attendant about the man's alleged rudeness, she was shown the door.

Other passengers can be seen leaping to the woman's defence and booing the cabin crew, but to no avail.

Bill Byrne, who was seated behind the woman, told KATU.com he filmed the incident with his phone close to his chest as "the flight attendant was ready to throw more people off".

"That poor woman was so upset. She handled it well, but you could tell it was super embarrassing for her," he said.

A spokesman for American Airlines told ninemsn they are investigating the incident and the woman was rebooked on the next flight to Portland.