PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A Pierce County man says he was "humiliated" and left "astonished" by an Alaska Airlines flight attendant who demanded he cover his hearing aids with headphones.

Jonathan Van Gieson of Edgewood was preparing for a flight home to Seattle and connected his hearing aids to his phone so he could stream music while his plane taxied on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

He admits the hearing aids produce an external noise, but insists he was listening at a level consistent with ambient noise on an airplane.

"How close do you have to be... to be hearing what's coming out of my hearing aids? Like, you have to get super close," he said.

Van Gieson said the flight attendant instructed him to place headphones over the hearing aids multiple time

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