You're an Awful Person': Thanksgiving Airplane Nightmare Complete With Passive-Aggressive Note-Passing Has Surprise Ending

While families around the country were sitting down and enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner Thursday, some stragglers were still making their way back home. Chancing fate by traveling the day of the holiday, some were inevitably delayed.

Such was the case for a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Sure, passengers were grumbing when they found out they'd likely be getting a warmed-up plate rather than sitting down with their families, but one passenger kept a public play-by-play of another particularly upset passenger. The situation eventually led to an epic note-passing battle and ended with a Thanksgiving slap.

Elan Gale, whose Twitter profile says he's a producer with ABC's "The Bachelor" and "The Bachlorette," kicked it off with a few tweets.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/theyearofelan/status/406091489690001408"]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/theyearofelan/status/406091911129071618"]

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/theyearofelan/status/406093131747041281"]

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Gale decided to try and de-escalate the situation by sending the upset woman, later identified as "Diane," a glass of red wine and a note. He also sent two bottles of vodka her way later.

This is the first note Gale sent to Diane along with a glass of wine. (Image source: @theyearofelan/Twitter)

While the note was peppered with sarcasm, many would have accepted the alcohol graciously. Diane responded with a note of her own, passed through the flight attendant from her seat.

The woman distressed about being late was seated in 7A. (Image source: @theyearofelan/Twitter)

Diane's initial response to Gale. (Image source: @theyearofelan/Twitter)

Elan's response?

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More notes were exchanged between the pair, threats of speaking with the authorities were issued and ...

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After getting off the plane in Arizona for a connecting flight, Gale wrote that he waited at the end of the jetway for Diane. He held out a final note out to her and was slapped.

Read Gale's full account of the exchange on Twitter.

UPDATE: Gale wrote on his Tumblr page afterward a little bit about why he took the action that he did.

"I know I can come across as abrasive. I know I can seem harsh. But what I’ve never done is be unkind to a person in a service position," Gale wrote. "I don’t care what’s going on with you: Don’t be rude to people who are doing their job. Don’t do it. Don’t dismiss them. Don’t act like they are less than you. Don’t abuse them just because you’re the customer and 'The Customer Is Always Right.'  If you’re the customer, you’re only right if you’re kind, polite and positively thankful. If you’re not, you’re a jerk, and that’s the bottom line."

He said a lot of people have called him a "hero" after what happened, but that's not the case.

"Our troops are heroes. Fire fighters and policemen are heroes. Doctors and teachers are heroes. Flight attendants and pilots and waiters and baristas… These are the people that make things work in this crazy world," he wrote. "What I did today was just point out something we all know: Be nice. It’s Thanksgiving. Be nice. Be nice everyday, but if you see a man or a woman working on a holiday you better respect that they would like to be with their family too."

Read his full post here.

(H/T: Huffington Post)

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