NFL’s Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones Arrested After Forcing United Flight To Return To Gate

Adam “Pacman” Jones, former cornerback of the Cincinnati Bengals, was arrested Monday morning at the Cincinnati airport after being removed from a flight. He was dropping F-bombs in the airport on social media prior to his flight.

Airport police were called shortly after 6 a.m. after United Airlines 1195 flight crew reported an unruly passenger. He was charged with disorderly conduct, intoxication, and making terroristic threats. Apparently seat power was inoperative at his seat and that’s when the ruckus began.

Jones says that had purchased two seats, so he could have extra space. He asked to be moved so he could have access to seat power. He figured that his purchase of two seats warranted that. And the plane turned around to accommodate him… off the aircraft, that is.

Here he is, claiming the whole incident is absurd, that he’s not intoxicated and wouldn’t have been “who in the hell is drunk at 6:30 in the morning man? So people just wake up and be drunk going to the airport?” He says he woke up at 3 a.m., and arrived at the airport at 4:30 a.m.

In 2018 Jones got into a fight at the Atlanta airport but there he was attacked by an airport employee and was fighting back.

Trouble seems to keep finding Jones. He was suspended from the 2007 NFL season and for part of the 2008 season following assault and felony vandalism charges as well as an altercation with police and then probation violations, obstruction of justice charges in another incident, and involvement in a cocaine bust. He was also involved in assaulting a Las Vegas stripper, an incident which escalated into a shooting incident. Most recently he was arrested for assault in 2021.

Here, the problem seems to have been a combination of Jones’ temper, and United’s failure to maintain their cabins – a decision they seem to have made with “United NEXT” interior retrofits pending and behind schedule. United should have had working seat power. Jones shouldn’t have escalated when they didn’t.

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. Non-working outlets on United planes happens more frequently than it should. Annoyingly on longer flights.

  2. Love it thanks. Can’t wait for the vitreol. I gotta assume these are the highest rated tags. Welcome to travel blogs kids.

  3. These days, if a carrier transports us from point A to point B and the luggage arrive with us, we’re very lucky already. Do not expect in-flight food, in-flight wifi, entertainment system, power outlet, etc. He was flying with United and he expected too much.

  4. Com’on Gary, can’t you even get your titles right? NFL is not an adjective. Perhaps you meant “former NXL player Adam Jones” ?

  5. Blowing a gasket because of not having seat power on a two hour flight is ridiculous. More problematic is that airlines steal back the extra carry-on and extra personal item you should be able to take when you buy an extra seat for comfort at the same price as the first seat (not a problem with Singapore Airlines where the extra seat was slightly discounted). Always figuring an angle to make things break in their favor like a dishonest gambler. That being said, it was United, did he expect better?

  6. Entitlement, people are so impatient and unyielding. Grow up! Accept a little inconvenience with grace.

  7. Perspective on items like in-seat power. The companies who manufacture these modules should do a better job. United cannot replace in seat power modules until they fail. These items are not “maintainable”, they’re remove and replace. They’re also warrantied parts like on your car. If airlines remove them before they’re broken, they will not be reimbursed. It’s an unfortunate part of air travel but when they’re constantly used, kicked, luggage banging into them, drinks spilt into the wiring, they’re bound to fail eventually.

  8. It’s a new paradigm. Customer complains / demands what they paid for from the vendor, and the vendor turns it around and makes the customer pay dearly for its shortcoming. What would’ve happened on JAL, for example? The attendants would’ve apologized profusely and accommodated the customer as much as was possible. Call the police on him and make him spend 2 hours in jail? Only in America.

  9. Appears this guy has anger management issues, some might say he is an entitled thug. Drunk at 6:30 am? On the other hand UA turns the plane around which inconveniences the entire flight. Overreaction? Fix your planes please, so these issues don’t come up in the first place! You promise a product, the customer pays and then you don’t deliver.

  10. Late in commenting, but frequently, what appear to be non-functional outlets are actually working. Switching power supplies have a large power influx when first plugging them in, and this sometimes is over the current level supported by the outlet. Unplugging the power supply and plugging it in again frequently allows charging, as the capacitors in the power supply or device are partially charged by the first attempt, and the second attempt (or even third) is successful. The seat power is limited, typically to 100W, but frequently will trip at 75W. Unlike circuit breakers which allow a short period of higher than rated current, the airline seat power does not allow a device to consume more than rated power at any particular moment.

    If only Pacman knew this trick, he might have been able to make his flight.

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