ORLANDO, Fla. — A flight from New York to Florida diverted to North Carolina due to a "disruptive" passenger on the plane.
Frontier Airlines Flight 1335 took off Wednesday evening from LaGuardia, making its way toward Orlando. But, it was diverted around 8:15 p.m. to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
A passenger aboard the Airbus A320neo told television station WRAL there was a "loud and obnoxious" man who grew increasingly agitated during the flight – perhaps, in part, due to a woman and child sitting behind him.
"I guess he kept getting poked and touched from behind and he started freaking out and claiming that, these people keep putting hands on me, they're trying to stick me with needles, they're trying to collect my DNA. I don't know what they want to do with it — maybe for money or maybe to sell it," recalled passenger Savannah Figueroa to WRAL. "He's like, I don't care if it's a lady and her kid, I'll smack them both."
Throughout the journey, the man reportedly began yelling, swearing and making threats toward those around him.
"I don't care who it is. I'll put my hands on anybody on this plane," Figueroa told WRAL he stated.
Figueroa says the guy threatened fellow travelers, including a baby, and even attempted to break a window mid-flight.
According to the TV station, the man became more mad when approached by flight attendants and was ultimately restrained by 5-6 passengers – one of whom was a police officer. As they removed belts and used zip ties to subdue the angry flyer, the flight attendants reportedly blocked the cockpit door as a precaution to protect the pilots.
In video obtained by WPBF, crew members can be heard instructing passengers how to restrain him in a way where the man can be seated for landing.
Eventually, the jet touched down in Raleigh.
An airport spokesperson tells 10 Tampa Bay that law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics met the plane – but did not say whether the man was actually arrested.
An FBI spokesperson tells us he wasn't. In fact, the bureau says it's consulting with federal prosecutors to decide whether to charge him.
"The FBI will be consulting with the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of North Carolina on the case," a spokesperson told 10 Tampa Bay via email.
Around 9:40 p.m., the flight took off again. It finally arrived late Wednesday night at Orlando International Airport.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to Frontier for comment, a little before 11:30 a.m. Thursday. We will update this story if the airline responds.
Misbehaving passengers have continued to disrupt flights across the country in 2022. Since the start of the new year, the FAA has received 394 reports of unruly travelers. A whopping 255 of those reports were linked to facemasks. It does not appear this latest Frontier case was.
Back in October, an American Airlines flight attendant suffered a concussion and facial injury when she was attacked by a 20-year-old passenger from California, according to the New York Times. The flight was forced to divert to Denver, and the employee was taken off the plane on a stretcher. At the time, the newspaper said the airline called it one of the worst displays of unruly behavior it had ever seen.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
