A Delta Airlines flight bound for Beijing returned to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a passenger assaulted and injured a flight attendant, officials said.
The 23-year-old man sitting in first class attacked the flight attendant about 45 minutes into Delta Flight 129 on Thursday night Sea-Tac Airport spokesman Perry Cooper said.
Passengers helped restrain him, Cooper said, until the plane landed back at Sea-Tac and Port of Seattle police arrested the man, whose name has not been released.
“The passenger was restrained on board and was removed from the flight by law enforcement without further incident,” Delta said in a statement.
The flight attendant and one other person were injured and taken to a hospital.
Passenger Dustin Jones was seated just behind the curtains that lead to first class, and said he could tell there was a scuffle happening.
“One of the flight attendants ran back and said there was a Code 3,” Jones told KIRO-TV. “There was a serious fight up front.”
Jones said he saw the man handcuffed and zip-tied being rolled into the terminal in a wheelchair after they had landed.
“He started yelling for help,” Jones said. “And so he turned the wheelchair over in the middle of the airport, screaming for people to help him, just being belligerent.”
Airport officials said they conferred with the FBI and the incident is not thought to be a national security threat.
The flight left for Beijing later Thursday night.
(AP)
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4 Responses
You can’t board a flight with a nail file, but you’re welcome to fly if you’re insane. Insanity seems more dangerous than a nail file, but harder to detect. Next, TSA with require a pre-flight psych screening.
Y’all left out the best parts! And he does have a name…
“Jun. 30, 2017 1:02 PM ET
SEATTLE (AP) — A flight attendant broke a wine bottle over the head of a man who lunged for an exit door and fought with other passengers during a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Beijing, but it didn’t faze him, an FBI agent wrote in charging papers filed Friday.
Joseph Daniel Hudek IV, 23, of Tampa, Florida, appeared in U.S. District Court, wearing a beige jail uniform and sporting a scrape or bruise below his right eye.
….He exhibited no sign of being intoxicated, the attendant told authorities…
…About an hour into the flight, while the plane was over the Pacific Ocean northwest of Vancouver Island, Hudek went into the forward restroom. He came out quickly, asked the attendant a question, and went back in, the agent wrote.
When he came out again two minutes later, he suddenly lunged for the exit door, grabbed the handle and tried to open it, Highley wrote. Two attendants grabbed him, but he pushed them away, and the attendants signaled for help from several passengers and notified the cockpit by telephone, the complaint said.
Hudek punched one flight attendant twice in the face and struck at least one passenger in the head with a red dessert wine bottle, it said.
As the struggle continued, a flight attendant grabbed two wine bottles and hit Hudek over the head with each — breaking at least one of them, Highley wrote.
According to one flight attendant, “Hudek did not seem impacted by the breaking of a full liter red wine bottle over his head, and instead shouted, ‘Do you know who I am?’ or something to that extent,” the complaint said.
One passenger got him in a head-lock, but he broke out of it, until finally several passengers held him long enough to place zip-tie restraints on him, Highley wrote. Even then he remained combative, she said, and it took multiple passengers to keep him restrained until the plane landed and Port of Seattle police arrested him.
Maybe they should have tried white wine?
All expenses invoked from this incident, including delayed passengers having to change their plans, extra airline fuel, airline staff working more hours, and the bottles of red wine, must be reimbursed by this crook, or/& his estate.