On a Tuesday morning flight from Miami to Los Angeles, things got wild. It’s getting to the point where watching other passengers is more interesting than the in-flight movie.
American Airlines employees were forced to restrain and handcuff a woman passenger when she caused a disturbance on the plane by shouting, “We’re all going to die,” telling everyone on the plane that they must repent for their sins.
According to the airline, the unruly passenger created such chaos on the flight, that the plane was forced to divert and land in El Paso, Texas, where local law enforcement took the woman into custody.
One passenger tweeted that after the loud woman warned people of their impending death, then she stood in the front aisle and yelled to people to repent and that redemption was coming.
According to another passenger, the woman was reportedly quiet before the outburst but only seemed fidgety. All hell broke loose after she went to use the restroom.
Flight attendants restrained her before things got out of hand, and an off-duty police officer offered to sit next to her and keep her quiet, or at least in her seat, as the plane’s crew members tried to calm her down.
A passenger tweeted that a flight attendant asked the woman if she was all right mentally, to which the woman replied, “No.” The attendant also asked her if she wanted to get out of the plane, and the woman agreed.
They decided to land before letting her exit.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reported a rise in the number of people causing disturbances mid-flight with violent behavior.
Last week, a 33-year-old man, Alexander Lee, was arrested and charged for allegedly punching a flight attendant. He boarded an American Airlines flight from San Jose, Mexico to Los Angeles and punched a flight attendant in the back of the head for refusing to serve him a cup of coffee.
An American Airlines spokesperson said that Lee was permanently banned from using the airline, adding that the carrier does not tolerate violent acts against any American Airlines employee.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants strongly condemned the incident in a statement released on Thursday. The Union said they would ensure that the offender and any such offenders face the full extent of the law.
FAA data shows that in the last 12 months, 1,973 cases of unruly behavior by passengers were documented. Reportedly, 680 investigations have been initiated out of the total number of cases, there have been 468 enforcement actions, and 80 of the cases have been referred to the FBI.
While most of the incidents witnessed in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022 were attributed to passengers refusing to wear face masks, lately most incidents involve unruly and violent behavior.
Last year, the FAA fined unruly passengers more than $1 million. Since it announced its zero-tolerance policy against badly behaved passengers in January, the FAA has already fined passengers more than $2 million in the first four months of this year.
