Passenger Taken Off Delta Flight In A Stretcher After Drinking Her Own Alcohol On Board

CBS This Morning Saturday co-host Dana Jacobson happened to be on board Delta flight DL1131 from Los Angeles to New York JFK on Thursday when the Boeing 757 was forced to divert to Detroit due to a raucous passenger reportedly drinking their own alcohol. She live-tweeted the experience, from people coming on board to the whole plane being offloaded, and captured video of the passenger being removed on a stretcher.

Let’s all note here that it isn’t airline-served alcohol causing the problem. When the airline serves it, they can monitor how much they’re serving. As passengers increasingly expect airlines not to provide drink service in back, the course chosen by American and Southwest, the people you least want drinking may be the ones to supply it themselves.

According to Delta,

[T}he flight was redirected “after a customer issue on board. The customer was met by law enforcement upon landing. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.”

Officers took the woman off the aircraft who was deemed to be a threat and who reportedly was drinking her own alcohol on board, which is itself illegal. Passengers were offloaded, too, and could see the woman being removed on a stretcher.

Here’s where the woman yells that she didn’t hurt anyone – as well as other choice language, taped by the CBS co-host, which is very much ‘NSFW’ as well as ‘not safe for work from home’.

As the passenger is being taken off the plane she yells, “Did I get physical with anybody on the flight?” as though that would be the only justification for taking her off. Apparently she wanted the crew and law enforcement to wait for their drunk passenger to actually do harm before reacting to the situation.

Fortunately everyone made it to New York… eventually.

(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)

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. What the hell is that Ghostbusters proton pack on the back of the EMT at 0:16?
    And this is Gary’s typical Karen trash of the week.

  2. That’s a rookie move – everyone knows you fill up your rum + coke bottle before you get on the plane!!

  3. Dana kept referring to the back of the plane. Is she implying that she sat upfront? 😉

  4. You talk as if you know that woman or the problems of her life. She is not trash. She is a human. Do you know why she turned to the bottle? Do you realize the loss that happened? Do you understand the pain associated with it? No! You won’t be fine! Be ashamed of your sadness.

  5. Another idiot added to the Permanently Banned list. Good riddance and enjoy your upcoming FAA fines.

  6. Drunk? check.

    Obnoxious? check

    So unable to manage that it was imperative to land the plane 500 miles short of the intended destination? I dunno.

    That passenger looks like she may check in at 130 pounds, max, and the most lethal weapon she had was a filthy mouth fueled by ample antifreeze. An FA and a volunteer pax could have taken care of business if she became violent. Could this not have been managed by gunning the engines for the last 500 miles, requesting priority landing, deplaning, letting all the other passengers go about their days and dealing with this unruly passenger at that time?

  7. It looks like she was having fun like any other person who boards on plane ready for vacation. There had to be more to this.

  8. Again, get on the plane, sit down, buckle up, enjoy your snack and beverage and shut your pie hole. Simple.

    You do not own this multimillion dollar aircraft, people do not behave like you in public in general.

    Bringing your own booze to nip on says you have an issue. Afraid to fly?? Take a bus or train please. You do not have the right to harass other passengers or to put others in danger at 30,000 feet in the air.

    I hope you are fined to the hilt and banned from flying.

  9. Gary, who are “the people” you refer to in “the people you least want drinking may be the ones to supply it themselves”?

  10. @Bill – Ghostbuster’s Proton Pak – made me laugh out loud for real. Thank you.

  11. It’s not illegal to drink your own alcohol onboard, it’s just illegal to drink alcohol that a flight attendant doesn’t serve you. A few airlines will, most won’t.

  12. Perma Ban Candidate.
    “When the pudding kicks in” – Bill Cosby

  13. @ John H. Im an FA, it is illegal to bring or drink your own alcohol on a plane. It’s a FAR.

  14. Jfhscott is exactly right. Why divert the flight and inconvenience the passengers? The lady was not a real security risk. Too much drama and overreacting by flight crews. That lady couldn’t breach the cockpit was not a real threat. No consideration by flight crews for the other people.

  15. What is really sad and disturbing is that these events are becoming so commonplace that they will soon no longer merit a news story.

  16. Amazing Larry, I pray for you and hope you learn a little compassion for those who are in trouble and who have little hope. You hope they are banned from traveling for life and will not be able to visit their dying relatives. I weep.

  17. For those who say what’s the harm, fly to your destination? On a full flight do you want to sit next to or around this? What if she did become violent? Or sick all over people? Or listen to the trash mouth she has? Being in a metal tube 30,000 feet above land is hard enough, being up there with a loud obnoxious, belligerent, and drunk passenger is unacceptable.

  18. By federal law the captain had to make that decision to land. What if she got near an emergency exit door?? At any point this situation could have gotten worse. That captain is responsible for all passengers safety.

  19. There are rules and regulations that apply to every passenger that boards an airplane.
    Plain & simple, it is illegal to drink your own alcohol, that is reason #1 to be removed from the plane.
    Don’t make this into any other issue.

  20. Law & Order and Diane are right on! My daughter works for Delta (in terminal), and the increase in this type of behavior is frightening to me. There are rules in place for the safety of everyone and she was violating a profoundly simple one. A 130 pound, out of control drunk (man or woman) is a dangerous scenario on a plane. And wow, she’s escorted off on a gurney with a modesty sheet? Now there’s some undeserved latitude.

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