A blind man whose guide dog was at the center of a controversy during a short flight had his fellow passengers’ support when the crew tried to boot him.

Albert Rizzi is legally blind and his service dog allegedly started acting up after a U.S. Airways Express plane sat -- without moving -- on tarmac for an hour-and-a-half on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. The dog was required to remain under the seat, but apparently got fidgety after so much time.

Rizzi claims a flight attendant approached him to get off the plane when the dog became too antsy:

The lady comes back and gets very insistent, and I said, 'Look, I don't understand what you want me to do.' I said, 'He's as best as he can, he's where he needs to be.' And I hear nobody else moving, and as I'm walking to the front, I'm like wait a second, why am I the only one getting off?"

Other passengers saw what was happening, so they decided that if Rizzi wasn’t allowed to fly, they wouldn’t remain on the flight, either.

The crew said Rizzi verbally abused them, while other people onboard claim the flight attendant would not try to work with Rizzi on the matter.

The airline wound up hauling the passengers to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport on a bus.

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