An American Airlines flight attendant was forced to hit an unruly passenger over the head with a coffee pot to subdue the man, who was attempting to open the plane’s door mid-flight. The airplane was forced to make an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport in Missouri.
“American Airlines flight 1775 with service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Washington, D.C. (DCA) diverted to Kansas City (MCI) due to an unruly passenger,” the airline said to CNN in a statement.
The 50-year-old man was detained by the FBI. He is facing charges of assaulting and intimidating a flight attendant and thereby interfering in the performance of the flight attendant’s duties. The problematic passenger will remain in custody until a detention hearing, according to a Department of Justice news brief.
According to an affidavit, the man began experiencing paranoid behavior. He approached the flight crew and told them, “people were attempting to hurt him, and they followed him on the plane.” When asked who, he pointed out the passenger seated next to him.
A flight attendant grabbed the man’s phone and noticed he had tried to dial 911, but the call did not connect. The man then walked to the plane’s cockpit area and accused the flight crew of lying to him. He became combative, grabbed a plastic knife, and held it “like a shank.”
“(The man) then grabbed a small champagne bottle by the neck of the bottle and attempted to break the bottle on the counter. He began kicking and shoving the service cart into one of the flight attendants,” the news release said.
That’s when he attempted to open the plane’s door. A flight crew member hit him over the head with a coffee pot, striking him twice. Passengers stepped in to help, one of them being a police officer.
When the plane landed, police and the FBI boarded the plane. The man was taken into custody while the other passengers were placed on another flight.
