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An American Airlines passenger delayed a flight to Nashville for over eight hours by joking about having the coronavirus, according to a report.

The flight was set to depart 6:30 p.m. Saturday from Dallas, but takeoff was hampered by a man, who first refused to lift his tray table, then claimed he had the deadly virus, news station WKRN reported.

“People were freaked out because nobody knew what was going on,” another passenger, Brandon Kenney, told WKRN. “People didn’t know if he was actually sick or if he really didn’t have coronavirus or not.”

The unruly passenger, who was not identified, was ejected from the plane by hazmat crews and police officers, who then explained the situation to freaked-out travelers, according to a report.

“Right after he was escorted off the plane, one of the cops came back and kind of explained the situation to the people that were sitting near him and kind of spelled it out for us and told us not to worry about it and really was just talking about how he was joking about having the coronavirus,” Kenny told the outlet.

But the flight was still delayed by unnerved crew members, who refused to fly after the fiasco, the report said. It was supposed to get to Nashville at 8:40 p.m. Saturday but didn’t get there until 4:40 a.m. Sunday.

American Airlines said the man was arrested for making a false claim, but didn’t provide further comment about the incident, WKRN reported.