Fight Breaks Out At Chicago O’Hare Baggage Claim

Here’s a fight being shared across social media that happened at baggage claim at Chicago O’Hare airport.

It’s not clear what started the fight, but this actually breaks out into more than one fight. It always amazes me that at a major international airport there are numerous law enforcement agencies of all kinds on premises, and cameras literally everywhere, yet no one seems to intervene.

While American Airlines branding is visible at baggage claim in the video, this doesn’t actually appear to be an American baggage carousel. Spirit Airlines has baggage belts beside American in terminal 3 at Chicago O’Hare. While American gets more than its share of passengers behaving badly, no one hits above their weight at this like Spirit. They serve a core leisure audience and have major presences in South Florida and Las Vegas.

This time it’s Chicago. Which, I suppose, makes this fight not very notable since even gun crimes there aren’t very man bites dog. I think that when the woman wearing a pink neck pillow gets involved this video really gets its proper ending.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Geez Gary, how much dog whistling can you do in one post? Just come out and say what you mean, which is this stuff wouldn’t happen if poor people weren’t able to fly.

    Where’s this level of “subtle” commentary on investment bankers when one pees on the other passengers?. Passengers would be practically pee-free if we didn’t allow anyone with a title similar to ‘asset manager’ on flights!

    And what’s with that bit about nobody intervening? Have you SEEN your picture? If you’re in that baggage claim there’s no way you’re intervening in anything. You can’t even intervene between yourself and a your own post with spelling/grammar mistakes.

    Side note, even though I know you give absolutely no thought to your posts (or proofreading) before you post them, no officer is going to intervene in that scrum unless someone’s actual life or long term health is in danger without an incredible amount of backup. They simply can’t put their firearm at risk over what’s essentially a rough slumber party. All the training is going to be wait until you outnumber the fighting group before getting involved. And that’s for EVERYONE’s safety.

  2. Honestly, I don’t understand why law enforcement or security guards don’t carry big ole’ Super Soaker water pistols to break up fights. Would cool off some hot tempers pretty quick.

  3. Your disdain for low fare carriers, especially Spirit, is just tiring and loses you any credibility as a supposed thought leader in travel. As someone else pointed out, your superiority complex shines through.

    -Proud Spirit Gold frequent flyer who makes 6 figures a year and never once seen a fight

  4. Last time I was in Chicago there was a repeater going with the voice of Lori Lightfoot telling me ORD was voted the most popular airport 18 years in a row?! How is that possible? I don’t like this airport and it makes me want to fight. Also, if you are going to fight at the airport, wear sensible shoes. It gives you a real advantage.

  5. Leave Spirit alone…I picked up my wife from a Spirit flight just today, from Florida to Chicago–no problems–ever…she flies Spirit every month and rarely have even been late and often times early…Never a single incident–at least on the Tampa to Chicago run. Love us some 47 dollar fares too.

  6. Simple. Although the incident didn’t actually occur on an airplane, the expectation of civil behavior must be non negotiable.
    If you cannot behave, in ANY part of an airport or airplane…
    ~ No Fly List ~

  7. @ NedsKid — Amen. Recently received a Gold match from Spirit, and I am loving it. Other airlines are a ripoff (of course, until something goes wrong, which is why you should always book an refundable award as a backup on one of those other overpriced airlines 😉 ).

    @ Gary — I agree with UA GS that these posts feed racism. I believe the fighting is primarily the result of the age of the passengers. I don’t see anyone over 25 fighting on the video.

  8. If everyone just ignored violent incidents then violent incidents would never happen.

  9. Dave and Gene- you are exactly what is wrong with this country right now. Not to mention the out of control violence occurring everyday by thugs (like this video) who are no longer held accountable by the Democratic led leadership. We have never been more unsafe in this country as we are now. As far as travel, why would you ever fly Southwest or Spirit? That is purely insane and you see what happens here.

  10. Well, I was there and saw 1 male and female arrested. They were both smiling.

  11. Of course nobody intervenes. In a situation like that how can you be sure where the side of justice lays and how can they be sure you’re not just another attacker?

    You either need a group that knows each other acting together to pull them apart, or you need a good-guy indication like a law enforcement or security uniform.

  12. The irony of someone named Chad claiming there’s no privilege… I almost think we’re being trolled.

  13. The future isn’t looking bright for much of the younger generation if these are any examples
    The recent problems on Michigan Ave too made me not want to return back to Chicago
    Sad really sad.Who wants to be anywhere around those that can’t behave like Ladies and Gentleman.Can just imagine the parents 🙁

  14. Say, this might be the better of two evils; fighting during flights or in the baggage claim area.

  15. @Ravih Dugal – “We have never been more unsafe in this country as we are now.”

    This is simply incorrect. From the late 1960s through the early 1990s we saw a peak in violent cime. The overall trend in crime since the mid-90s has been down. The overall violent crime rate per the Bureau of Justice statistics peaked in 1980 at 52.3 incidents per 1,000 people.

    And maybe the Civil War era was less safe?

  16. There is a sentence in need to change from:

    “While American gets more than its share of passengers behaving badly, no one hits above their weight at this like Spirit.”

    To:

    “While American gets more than its share of passengers behaving badly, NO ONE HITS BELOW THE BELT like Spirit.

  17. Even though the clip is only 53 seconds long, I’m sure the fight was already in progress before the video started. Airport police should have been on top of this a lot sooner.
    its a bad reflection on airport security, airport administration, and the mayor.

  18. 60-70MM a month fly in the US. I’d say only 1-2 pax brawls / month indicates the system is working excellently.

  19. @Rivah_Dugal your comment ooze with entitlement and ignorance. If you have kids, I fear for what you are teaching them.

    1. Funny how you blame violent crime on Democrats. The ten states with the highest rates of violent crime: DC, NM, LA, CO, SC, AR, OK, WA, TN, OR. Looks to be a mix of D and R states to me. 10 states with the lowest violent crime: NH, MA, ME, ID, NJ, VT, RI, VA, WV, NY. Lot of blue states there.

    2. Accountability begins with what we are teaching our youth. In a society where snowplow parents let their kids get away with everything and fight their battles for them is it any wonder this is where we find ourselves. The only difference between these people and the people living in your neighborhood is the folks in your neighborhood probably have better lawyers.

  20. To the guy complaining about spelling and grammar, check your post. Also, nothing racist in the article. People who behave like this at an airport or on a flight should be banned and arrested regardless of race, social class, or age. I’ve never flown Spirit. Can’t speak to it but in Europe, low cost carriers do attract people who light up on the tarmac, don’t sit in assigned seats, and get crazy drunk.

  21. @SOBE ER DOC

    He’s right, City run by a certain party and their war on police policies are the reason why they are dangerous

    It seems you suffer from entitlement.

    @Chris Raehl

    NA I’m just calling out your excuses for your personal failures and persecution complexes.

  22. And this is why I stay out of Terminal 3. You never see this happen in Terminals 1 and 2.

  23. On the other hand. If it was a United flight the rent-a-cops would be there in seconds to beat the crap out of everyone involved.

  24. Chicago is a shithole. No idea why people live there- at least California has good weather and NYC is pretty important on the world stage- Chicago is on its way to being another Detroit. You get what you vote for, I guess.

  25. I visited Chicago decades ago on a work assignment. Being familiar with NYCs bus and subway system, I decided to take the train from the airport to downtown Chicago. Chicago is as diverse as NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami, to name a few. Perhaps the growth of passenger flights has some believing in self entitlement in public places airports, malls, metropolitan cities, forgetting simple respect.

  26. So, @Chad, If you have followed my posts you will see a pattern of advocating for those marginalized by folks like you who want to blame everyone on liberals and people of color. So, you’ll excuse me if I laugh at your comment and dismiss it as gaslighting.

    Before every assumes the fight was a direct results of flying Spirit or something in the air in Chicago that makes people want to be violent maybe it would help to have more context. Was someone over-served on the plane / in the airport? Did someone try to take a bag that wasn’t theirs? Did someone show up with their side-piece and get caught? No one has any idea what provoked this simply by looking at the video. You know, just like when a cop shoots an unarmed person in the back, it’s caught on video and people say the video doesn’t tell the whole story.

    @Chad, you want to have it both ways and THAT is the quintessential definition of entitlement. But, hey, you do you.

  27. @SOBE ER DOC
    I know you make excuses for peoples actions and deny reality because you love pushing your politics of grievance. “Marginalized people” some people marginalize themselves. I don’t need to have it both ways, I just accept reality which is something intersectionalists like yourself deny.

  28. @Chad thank you for acknowledging that I am, as you call it, an intersectionalist. Data + context = knowledge. I guess that’s the difference between gaslighters such as yourself and intersectionalists like me. I place data into context to form well-reasoned points of view. You’ve decided everything is an “either, or.”

    I’m asking for the context behind the causes of the fight in the video. You automatically assume the causes of the fight are that it occurred in a liberal city and involved some people of color. But, again, you do you. Not trying to change you, but not going to sit back and ignore ill-informed narratives.

  29. @SOBE ER DOC
    “Data + context = knowledge”
    Which you seem to lack. That is the whole point.
    You’re entire ideology and way of thinking is based on emotions and fantasy. You make up fake reason to ignore the actual reasons for a conflict.

    You are indoctrinated.

  30. I find it interesting that Gary pulled my reply. In its place, he placed a comment that “…a variety of races were fighting.” I never mentioned race. Of course, it is his ball park so we have to play by his rules!

  31. @Chad:
    The side I see being ideology-driven is yours. You see blue city, black people fighting and assume that’s the only relevant factor. The reality is we don’t know. This could have simply been they’re trash. It could have been attempted luggage theft. It could have been alcohol + an incorrect assumption of luggage theft (A thinks B has their bag, but actually B has a matching bag.)

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