Flight attendant reported that a passenger refused to wear a face mask during the flight.

Narrative:

A passenger came back to use the lavatory during flight; I noticed he had his mask hanging around one ear not covering his mouth. When he came out of the lavatory; I asked him to put on his mask; he replied; 'why? Is something going on that I should know about?' and walked to his seat; he did not put his mask on. I went over to his seat and asked him to put on his mask again for everyone's safety. He replied; 'why? Am I not wearing it right?' I responded that the mask needed to cover his mouth and nose. He then grabbed the mask and broke the string; he said; 'damn it; I guess I can't wear it now.' I told him we have more masks and went in the back to the galley and grabbed another mask for him. After handing it to him; I left. Later on in the flight after my final descent announcement; I was passing through the cabin doing my final sweep and saw he was still not wearing the mask. I asked him again to put it on; that it is a requirement to wear a mask while on the aircraft. He told me he can't breathe with it on and unless I had a ventilator he wasn't going to wear it. At this point; I felt that it wasn't constructive anymore and he wasn't going to comply; I didn't know what else to do so I left.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Attendant reported that a passenger refused to wear a face mask during the flight.

Narrative: A passenger came back to use the lavatory during flight; I noticed he had his mask hanging around one ear not covering his mouth. When he came out of the lavatory; I asked him to put on his mask; he replied; 'Why? Is something going on that I should know about?' and walked to his seat; he did not put his mask on. I went over to his seat and asked him to put on his mask again for everyone's safety. He replied; 'Why? Am I not wearing it right?' I responded that the mask needed to cover his mouth and nose. He then grabbed the mask and broke the string; he said; 'Damn it; I guess I can't wear it now.' I told him we have more masks and went in the back to the galley and grabbed another mask for him. After handing it to him; I left. Later on in the flight after my final descent announcement; I was passing through the cabin doing my final sweep and saw he was still not wearing the mask. I asked him again to put it on; that it is a requirement to wear a mask while on the aircraft. He told me he can't breathe with it on and unless I had a ventilator he wasn't going to wear it. At this point; I felt that it wasn't constructive anymore and he wasn't going to comply; I didn't know what else to do so I left.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1754496
Time
Date	202007
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Experience	Flight Attendant Airline Total 7
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct