Southwest Airlines flight 557 was scheduled to operate from Dallas Love Field (DAL) to Kansas City International Airport (MCI) on Friday, November 6, using a Boeing 737-700 registered N255WN. An eyewitness passenger posting on Reddit described two flight attendants arguing at the front of the aircraft in full view of the passengers on board; the crew were then taken off the aircraft, and passengers were told that a flight attendant was sick, before the captain explained over the loudspeaker that the two had “personality differences”. According to a report by View From The Wing, one of the flight attendants involved has since quit after being embarrassed by the verbal argument in front of a fully boarded aircraft.
The flight was scheduled to depart at 2:25 PM. Due to an initial maintenance delay and then the crew argument, it was delayed two hours and 24 minutes before finally pushing back and departing for Kansas City. The one-hour, four-minute flight landed in Kansas City at 6:16 PM, two hours and 21 minutes behind its scheduled arrival time of 3:55 PM. With the crew member reportedly quitting and refusing to operate the flight, Southwest had to find a replacement crew member, which was the primary cause of the delay. A 737-700 is typically crewed by two pilots and three cabin crew for 137 passengers in an all-economy configuration, and Southwest is the largest operator of the 737-700, with more than 270 active aircraft in its fleet.
Simple Flying reached out to Southwest for comment on Saturday, but an airline spokesperson could not immediately be reached. Flight 557 is a regular scheduled six-weekly service between Dallas and Kansas City; the aircraft operating it was a Boeing 737-7H4, serial number 32513, delivered on September 19, 2006, and 20.2 years old.