A rumor that circulated online in August 2025 claimed a white woman named Victoria Hartwell refused to move from an airplane seat assigned to a Black CEO named Devon Mitchell.
According to the story, a Washington Post journalist named Elena Vasquez witnessed and documented the incident, and flight attendant Sarah Chen sided with Hartwell without properly checking their tickets. Mitchell then used his "CEO app," sent an order to ground the plane and revealed himself as the founder of both an air travel technology company and, more importantly, the majority owner of the airline.
Snopes readers searched this website to find out more information about the story.
A search of social media websites found one of the most prominent videos showcasing the rumor on the Bliss Whispers YouTube channel. That Aug. 26 clip (archived), receiving around 500,000 views, was titled, "White Woman Takes Black CEO's Seat—Then Discovers He Owns the Entire Airline #blackceo." The video's text description identified the flight as Pinnacle Airways Flight 1847, and said Mitchell revealed himself as the founder of Skytech Innovations and majority owner of Pinnacle Airways.
Users primarily shared this rumor on Facebook (archived) and YouTube (archived), and also reposted the claim TikTok (archived) and X (archived).
However, someone entirely fabricated the story. That person, possibly a manager of the Bliss Whispers YouTube channel, made up the names and other details — including the nonexistent Washington Post reporter named "Elena Vasquez," as well as the fake company "Pinnacle Airways." Bliss Whispers, which did not display any external contact information, featured a text description ending with the following disclaimer about the video's fictional content, only visible to users who clicked or tapped "show more" to expand the description to its full visible length:
Disclaimer: The stories presented on this channel are fictional and created for inspirational and educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events, organizations is purely coincidental. We do not intend to offend or misrepresent anyone. If you believe any content causes an issue, please contact us directly so we can resolve it promptly. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Further, the video displayed an "Altered or synthetic content" label to alert viewers they, or someone else, created the visuals and narrated vocals with artificial-intelligence tools. Signs of AI visible in the visuals of the video included illegible text on overhead storage bins and "Mitchell's" ticket, as well as the smooth-looking appearance of people's faces — a telltale sign of AI.
The video's scripting and description also displayed signs someone asked an AI tool to write the text. For example, the description under the video showed formatting consistent with the way some AI tools typically write YouTube descriptions, including with bullet points following several paragraphs, as well as the usage of horizontal line separators.
Why creators shared the fictional story
Whoever authored the story fabricated it as one of at least hundreds of racially charged tales. Those tales usually end with an inspirational message. In the case of the fictional matter involving "Mitchell" and "Hartwell," the story ends with "Mitchell" implementing "bias detection technology" nationwide, sparking a "global movement using technology to prevent discrimination."
These stories all very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as stories "that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental."
The YouTube users who shared the story aimed to earn YouTube advertising revenue from people viewing their misleading videos, as evidenced by the presence of ads.
Some Facebook users also attempted to draw in readers, submitting links in their top comments leading to articles on external websites. On those websites, they, too, sought to earn ad revenue. For example, a manager of the Black Sport Facebook page posted the rumor and linked to an ad-filled article. According to "Page transparency" tabs on numerous Facebook pages sharing the rumor, their page managers primarily resided in Vietnam.
We previously investigated and reported about the role Vietnam (and other countries) played in promoting false stories about the July 2025 Texas flash floods.
Google's 'AI Overview' and similar false stories
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about a Black airline CEO revealing themselves as the airline's majority owner following a discriminatory action. Prominent outlets would have widely reported such a real-life occurrence, if authentic.
The Google search displayed an "AI Overview" above search results that seemingly confirmed the "viral story" as true, citing only Facebook posts and YouTube videos as sources. That AI-generated answer did not include any text alerting users of the unconfirmed or false nature of the story. Instead, the AI Overview displayed very small text under the answer reading, "AI responses may include mistakes."
(Google)
Further searches found similar untrue rumors, including for example the claim, "White Woman's Bag Blocks Black CEO's Seat, Minutes Later the Flight Is Cancelled." Another fabricated rumor appearing in a June 2025 YouTube video (archived), with more than 687,000 views, also similarly claimed, "Black CEO Denied First Class Seat – 30 Minutes Later, He Fires the Flight Crew."
The full text of the fabricated story
The text description under the Bliss Whispers YouTube video read as follows:
Devon Mitchell boards Pinnacle Airways Flight 1847 wearing casual clothes when passenger Victoria Hartwell refuses to move from his assigned seat 2A, telling him to find something "more appropriate" and suggesting he doesn't belong in first class despite his valid boarding pass.
The discrimination escalates when flight attendant Sarah Chen sides with Hartwell without checking documentation, asking Devon to relocate to accommodate the unauthorized passenger. Captain Rodriguez endorses this suggestion while multiple passengers witness the systematic bias, with some recording the incident.
The situation transforms when Washington Post journalist Elena Vasquez and college student Zoe Kim document the discrimination live on social media. Victoria Hartwell makes increasingly racist comments about affirmative action and "you people" while refusing to show her own boarding pass.
The explosive revelation occurs when Devon uses his CEO app to ground the aircraft, revealing he is Devon Mitchell, founder of SkyTech Innovations and majority owner of Pinnacle Airways. The passengers who discriminated against him discover they targeted the person who literally owns the airline.
The resolution creates industry-wide transformation as Devon implements bias detection technology across airline reservation systems nationwide. His experience sparks a global movement using technology to prevent discrimination, showing how one person's refusal to accept unfair treatment can reshape entire industries.
For further reading, we previously reported on similar racially charged, fabricated and AI-driven stories claiming a white flight attendant humiliated Indian-born Google CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as a claim alleging white staff at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport asked Sasha Obama, who is Black, to leave.