First Class Showdown: Passengers Save Woman From Violent Seatmate On American Airlines

by Gary Leff

A first class passenger got violent on Wednesday night’s American Airlines flight 310 from Miami to Charlotte, with other passengers jumping up to subdue the man to protect the female customer next to him, that he appears to have been traveling with.

The flight was given a direct path into Miami, allowing it to get onto the ground quickly and arrive 26 minutes early, with police meeting the aircraft to remove the man.

An American Airlines spokesperson offers,

Two customers traveling together were engaged in an altercation aboard American Airlines flight 310, with service from Miami (MIA) to Charlotte (CLT) on Oct. 2. Local law enforcement responded and escorted the customers from the CLT airport. We do not tolerate violence, and we thank our team members for their professionalism in managing a difficult situation.

Is it at all surprising that this was a flight coming from Florida? And it suggests that first class passengers don’t have more class than other classes.

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. OK I’ll be “that guy” – in text you state “The flight was given a direct path into Miami” but the flight was arriving at CHARLOTTE, not Miami (as the screen image immediately below your test clearly shows). Please correct this.

    Also, obviously more to this than a drunk or air rage. Likely something serious came up between the couple and frankly best IMHO not to publicize it any more than necessary or make your snarky comment related to “Florida man”

    Be better Gary

  2. “Is it at all surprising that this was a flight coming from Florida? ”

    What are you insinuating?

  4. Quit harping on Florida passengers having no class folks – remember all our trash blew into Florida from other states.

  6. The colorful “Florida Man” monicker has been around since 2013. Of course, the once lighthearted and comedic term has since taken very dark meaning, in light of the perverted class politics, violent actions, and abundant bigotry associated with the state as it is stands now. That is entirely the fault of the bad actors, not an airline kerfuffle reporter.

  8. I don’t understand all the snarky Florida comments. It’s not like Floridians act this way on purpose. It’s just how they are.

  10. Charlotte-man can be just as dangerous as Florida-man. We just hear more about Florida man because they have open records.

  11. If you’re going to bother posting National Enquirer-type stories like this, at least give us the juicy details!

  12. I think air travel now needs it’s own reality show, like Cops. It would probably be a huge hit!

  13. And honestly, to folks who say that this is likely some kind of private personal issue between this couple? If he was acting out violently in a public place, which an airplane is to an extreme, then it is no longer a private personal issue. It is everyone’s problem.

  14. AA thanked their “team members” but not the passengers who probably did the job of deescalating the situation. Tsk tsk.

  16. To the contrary the British dumped generations of criminal underclass in Florida. Classlessness is you blood Florida

  17. First class passengers do not have more class than other passengers because they are flying on ultra basic American Airlines.

    Why isn’t anyone saying this is CAUSED by AA because it’s so hub to hub. Maybe this couple was massively irritated by multi-city anti-competitive behavior. Maybe they are outraged part of their parking revenue would go to AA at CLT. Or maybe they were just disappointed by a how many “Group 1” passengers there are in MIA. People fight for a lot of reasons but we should always blAAme AA when possible.

    I watched a moment of the video and this seems like vigilantism. I heard the “F” word – not needed. If I was in this I would have calmly gotten a FA, returned to my seat, put by lap belt on and would have put on an eye mask. I don’t want to be involved.

  18. Geeze.. you all see sound like a bunch of 6th grade girls giggling after getting their first period.

  19. C’mon… both Trump and DeSantis are Florida.
    If that doesn’t say Truth, Justice and the American Way, then what can you say.

    /s

  20. I’m quite surprised that there isn’t more of this type of inappropriate behavior on the East and West coast. Almost eight years of so many folks having TDS, they’re bound to be all stressed out on the airplane.

  21. Amazing…We fly so much, nationally, internationally, and have NEVER experienced such an incident!
    Mostly on United, but I am sure that’s a coincidence. Last flight we almost landed, took off in a hurry to avoid a collision. Kudos! Traveled to 62 countries, multiples…I’d say travel on our flights hahaha!

  22. Yeah, I know, right? Where else would people be brave enough to defend a woman against a wife beater?

    Anybody else would just pull out their phones and record.

  23. That’s right. I’ve never experienced these kinds of drama in 30+ years of flying. They’re rare, rarer than in past, but now get outsized publicity via social media which skews perception.

  24. From only seeing a snipit of a video posted of the incident on the flight,I kinda wonder if there was more going on than we know. Like could there have been alcohol involved before the incident happened or could there have been more brooding underneath that isn’t known

  25. Stop making fun of Floridians just because most of them are hypocrites who hate anything left of DeSanctimonious until they need a handout from the federal government for disaster relief, at which point they all briefly morph into being all pro federal spending and deficits.

  27. What if this happens between 2 countries, like Israel and Gaza? Let the wife, even if wrong, get the crapp beat out of her with no police to separate the two?

    …but she had an affair?!! Bam, slug.

    See, very difficult situation like the AA passengers.

Comments are closed.