Landen Ewing was flying from Nashville to her home in Amarillo, Texas, when she spotted the man seated beside her typing a remarkably unkind text—about her.
Documented in a now-viral TikTok video, with over 1.2 million views, Ewing explained to Newsweek that while the incident was surprising, "the response [from viewers] has been overwhelmingly positive."
She begins the story by explaining that it was just the two of them seated in their row—meaning that the cruel message could have only been about her. She says in the clip, "He has his phone out, like way out in front of him... where I can see it."
"I'm sitting next to him and I'm reading his texts with his girlfriend, and she's asking him how the flight's going...just casual conversation like that."
In response to the presumed girlfriend's inquiry about the flight, he reportedly texted: "Too small with this fat a** next to me."
"Like, he was talking about me," clarifies Ewing.
@landenmewing #greenscreen #storytime I was the victim of a hate crime 😂#DontSpillChallenge #whatajerk #airplanemode #CompleteMyLook #foryoupage #nashville #lol
♬ original sound - Landen Ewing
Sure enough, Ewing shows a covert photo of the stranger's phone, exposing the text exchange. In response, the girlfriend is shown saying: "Hahaha. Tell her about keto."
Adds Ewing, "You can't really see the rest of the conversation, but he continued to type out: 'I'll be alright don't think we'll make it off the ground.'"
"We were really close together, so it was hard for me to...get a picture of it," she explains. "He continued to text about how fat I was and how...it was awful and he hates being on small flights with fat people," says Ewing, an expression of disbelief on her face.
"So if you're his wife or his girlfriend and you see this—your boyfriend sucks," she concludes.
Ewing, the owner of Blonde + Baked, a custom cake and cookie business, told Newsweek that she "didn't really see a point" in saying something to the rude stranger, as she's "not very confrontational."
"I was surprised at first! You never expect to see someone calling you names basically to your face, but overall I decided to laugh it off," she said, adding that "it didn't upset [her] too much."
Viewers, however, had harsher words for the cruel texter. "Honestly you're a better person than me. I would have turned to him and called him out," wrote one commenter.
Many more theorized that the man's text was actually a lie, said in order to protect the feelings of his partner. Explained one commenter: "Honey he probably had to lie and say that because if [she] knew he was by a cute girl she would flip out and accuse him of cheating." Others, meanwhile, suspected that the stranger saw Ewing glancing at his phone and sent the message to "get a rise out of [her]." "If you were sitting that close and his phone was that far out, he knew you were looking and was messing with you."
Regardless of viewers' theories, Ewing is grateful for the support she's gotten on TikTok. "I'm very thankful for everyone who said nice things to me," said Ewing, noting that the incident was "just a reminder to...be kind all the time!"
She added, "You never know how your words can affect others."
