I just don't believe this. It's fake news. This line made it clear to me:

"He said the officer appeared to be mid to senior level, and there’s no chance the conversation would have been overheard by anyone else in line."

So basically there is no one who can corroborate with his story. This trash should not be allowed into any publication which calls itself 'news'.

I'm surprised that people actually believe that stuff by default. In this new world, the default should be to distrust the media and that line I quoted above gives a very good reason to distrust it.