Doctor Peter Steinmetz says he was thrown off a Delta Airlines flight presumably because of a conversation he had with another passenger in line at the boarding gate.

Steinmetz says the TSA was doing a random bag check at the gates on Monday and another man had been pulled out of line. Steinmetz says that passenger then cut in front of him and his wife and son and was clearly agitated.

"It became kind of a difficult situation, I had to ask him to calm down, that he was becoming threatening," Steinmetz said.

He claims he went on to try and diffuse the situation by commiserating over what he believes is a pointless security system.

"I said something like 'do you know how likely you are to be killed in a terrorist attack? Because the answer is one in 20-million in a lifetime.'"