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A shocking video has emerged of an American Airlines flight attendant threatening to fight a passenger after the employee allegedly hit a mother with a stroller.

The footage, filmed on a flight from San Francisco to Dallas, appears to show the flight attended provoking an infuriated passenger while yelling “hit me”.

He had allegedly “violently” took a stroller from a mother and hit her, just missing her baby, witnesses have claimed.

The disturbing footage was uploaded to Facebook by passenger Surain Adyanthaya yesterday and has since been viewed almost 500,000 times, prompting outrage from viewers.

She posted: “OMG! AA Flight attendant violently taken a stroller from a lady with her baby on my flight, hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her.”

The video shows a distraught woman crying towards the front of the plane while holding her baby before a concerned passenger comes to her aid.

When the flight attendant appears, one man shouts from his seat, “hey bud, you do that to me an I’ll knock you flat”.

Tensions soon rise and the pair begin squaring up to each other as the mother and baby sob behind the men.

The passenger returns to his seat while shouting, “I can see exactly what you did”.

The flight attended finally shouts at the man to “keep it quiet”.

Other passengers can be heard venting their anger at the flight attendant, while fellow American Airlines staff try to calm him down.

Ms Adyanthaya added: “They just involuntarily escorted the mother and her kids off the flight and let the flight attendant back on, who tried to fight other passengers. The mom asked for an apology and the AA official declined.”

American Airlines released a statement on Friday saying it is “disappointed” by the flight attendant’s actions and has launched an investigation.

The flight attendant has been removed from his job while the investigation takes place.

It said: “What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers.

“We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident.

“We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care.

“The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care.

”In short, we are disappointed by these actions.”

Earlier this month, United Airlines caused public outcry after security staff were filmed violently dragging a doctor from an overbooked flight.