A disruptive passenger was restrained with flexible handcuffs and duct-taped to a seat as his flight was diverted to make an emergency landing in Baltimore Thursday night, photos and video from other passengers showed.

Richard Olenick and Juan Mejia were more than halfway through the flight when a man two rows behind them in the first-class section started to become belligerent, Olenick said.

A flight attendant tried to control the situation but the man got increasingly agitated, started to hit the passenger next to him and then hit a woman who tried to intervene, Olenick said.

  • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    If he’s in first class that’s chump change for him. Must be nice being rich and facing no real consequences

    • timochka@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      US domestic first is hardly “stratospheric wealth” territory, anyone could afford that if they saved for it (which I really wouldn’t recommend - paying over the odds for a bigger seat on a 3hr shitty 737 flight is how you ensure you’ll never have enough money for real first-class travel…)

      • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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        21 minutes ago

        You can also get upgraded for free. I’ve flown first many times, I’ve never paid for it.

    • SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social
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      5 hours ago

      He’ll probably enjoy being banned from at least that airline.

      And the 40k are not for assaulting passengers, that will come in top.

      Besides criminal penalties, the agency can pursue fines of more than $43,000 against any passenger who “assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crew members.”