A cross-country flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to the hostile and unruly behavior of its passenger.
Delta Airlines flight 1730 en route to Atlanta from Los Angeles was forced to divert its route and make an emergency landing in Oklahoma after a passenger made threats and attacked flight attendants on Friday.
“The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement,” the airline said in a statement.
A video circulating on social media showed a chaotic scene in the plane where a passenger was seen screaming as several passengers pin him to the floor.
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“Keep him down, keep him down,” a voice can be heard in the video saying.
“We can’t get forward with restraints if everybody’s in the aisle,” a flight attendant told passengers.
The man tried to open a door in-flight.
The Washington Post reported citing flight tracking data from FlightAware shows the plane making a sharp northeastern turn after crossing Texas and landing in Oklahoma City.
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It was not immediately clear what caused the outburst of the passenger.
But Oklahoma City police said the man “made terroristic threats and assaulted two flight attendants near the front of the plane.”
The flight crew asked passengers for help and several people help detained the man including an off-duty pilot, local reports said.
It was the third time this month that a Delta flight out of Los Angeles had to be diverted due to the hostile and unruly behavior of a passenger. (RA)
