CNN is reporting that former NY Senator Al D’Amato was tossed off a six-hour-late Jet Blue flight from Ft. Lauderdale. Fla. to JFK on Monday after he confronted passengers who wouldn’t move to the back of the craft as the captain had ordered and then berated the captain, urging him to ”grow some balls” after he didn’t force them to the back.

The captain had said 10 people needed to move to the back for weight distribution purposes. As he was being escorted off by sheriff’s deputies, D’Amato urged fellow passengers to “Stand up for what’s right and walk out with me,” according to the report.

One passenger de-planed with D’Amato and Jet Blue later apologized, according to CNN which has cell phone video of the incident here.

The former GOP Senator’s consulting firm Park Strategies issued a statement to CNN saying that “Anyone who knows Senator D’Amato knows he speaks his mind — but in this case, he spoke after a long and demanding trip to Florida to visit an ailing friend,”