Comments

1. The NYT articles have a paywall.

2. On the ‘Satanic Passenger’ incident: Weird. Not cool. Would certainly be upset if this delayed my flight. To those who will inevitably attack the perpetrator’s ‘beliefs’ rather then their ‘misbehavior,’ please recall that the US Constitution, First Amendment, ‘Freedom of Religion’ clause, guarantees the right to practice any religion or no religion at all, and prohibits the government from establishing or favoring any religion–for all people, not just citizens, including visitors, in the United States. It’s not defending the indefensible–it’s a reminder that we can practice any belief system we wish (or none at all, but we cannot disrupt a flight over it. That is actual ‘common sense.’

3. Note re: satanic infestation. If you believe you are possessed by a demon, do not start to swallow rosary beads. That is not a solution to your problems. Call a priest. Spraying holy water on those A320s also will not solve that problem.

4. @jns — At least Gary referenced the most relevant parts of the article here. This is VFTW, not the Associated Press, after all.

   On a practical note, do you have an Amex Platinum? You could use its $20/month ‘digital entertainment credit’ for NYT or WSJ monthly subscription–that way, no more paywalls for you.

   While much of corporate ‘journalism’ is behind paywalls these days, there are still a few public media organizations and not-for-profits that remain freely available to everyone. For major news, the Associated Press, PBS and NPR still do a decent job in the USA, even if they aren’t perfect.

   Reliable information and access to is indeed powerful. It seems that one ‘team’ wants to eliminate those few remaining reliable sources that remain free–the billionaires have bought up most of the private media companies, newspapers, television channels, social media platforms, etc. They seem to want to ensure their personal dominance by propagating their own narratives, regardless of reality or the truth. Historically, when we give up on the truth, dictatorships thrive.

5. @jns – which is why i flagged it as NYT

6. Start putting people in jail and put them on a universal Do Not Fly List. The endless airplane and airport meltdowns, and even lounge would end immediately.

7. @George N Romey — Private companies can deny to service to specific customers based on non-discriminatory reasons, such as repeated or significant violations of their rules or other laws.

   However, to take away someones’ liberties (jail them), there should be actual due process, otherwise false accusations will abound—remember the whole ‘cancel culture’ thing that people seemed to dislike—so, if we believe committed a crime, those affected can get the authorities involved, properly arrest and charge them, then a district attorney and prosecutor can decide to take up the case, the defendant must be allowed an opportunity to obtain qualified representation and to challenge the charges if they wish, and if the defendant is convicted in accordance with the law, then sure, be sentenced, maybe fines or jail time.

   I get it. It’s ‘the internet.’ Brash judgement is currency in here. ‘Empathy’ is practically a bad word. But if it were you, and you were falsely accused, you’d want to be able to defend yourself. And even if you did do the crime, you’d should not face excessive, disproportionate punishment. Please, come back to reason, sir.

8. @1990 I guess you haven’t realize how bad the behavior has gotten. Some lunatic on the plane not only is a hassle and can cost an airline money put are risk to everyone’s life on board and possibly people on the ground. You do realize that airplane crashes also take out lives on the ground. It’s time to start to stop the criminal behavior and there’s one sure proven way-punishment.

   So arrest, cuff, take to jail, book, bond hearing (and don’t get me started on that) and if convicted off to prison and no fly list. I have zero, nada, no compassion for these lowlifes. If you want to live in a world of low rent, thug, trailer park, ghetto trash go right ahead. I don’t.

9. @George N Romey — I’ve seen it first-hand and second-hand. It’s awful. This misbehavior must be shunned and shamed by all of us.

   I’m also well-aware of how quickly a mob can rush to vigilantism. Do we really want to resort to such chaos and violence in our society?

   Hurt people hurt people, as they say. You may think of them as ‘lowlifes’ or whatever pejorative you prefer depending on the background or identity of the alleged perpetrators.

   For instance, your use of ‘ghetto’ for a Haitian, as in this case, is just thinly veiled racism. If that makes you feel better or superior, you can and will have that vile opinion and seem confident enough to share it openly, but it doesn’t make it right or solve anything—in fact, such demagoguery and hate speech often does lead to greater harms against the innocent people in the groups that you target and denigrate. And of course, then those groups may attack you, and thus, the cycle repeats, escalates, and can lead to violence. I hope we can agree that violence here is not the answer. However, maybe you think it is—zero-sum, dominate and ‘end’ your perceived enemies. I do not subscribe to that level of intolerance.

   So, back to underlying issues here. The misbehavior on flights, in airports, etc. Of course, no one should ‘get away with it’ and also it should not be an extrajudicial life or death sentence. My point remains that rule of law, due process, and other mechanisms to de-escalate and to deter this are still available and should be the focus here. We should defend those tools to ensure peace and prosperity for all.

10. If you’d like to share your travel experience with thoughtful, discerning, and thought-leading guests of all religions, please consider Delta.

11. Thanks to the Daily Beast, here is a link to an article that you can read without a paywall: https://www.thedailybeast.com/passenger-swallows-rosary-beads-and-attacks-flight-crew-in-demonic-frenzy/

    Until maintenance can address the repairs needed for seat 4A, it’s advisable to avoid sitting there, as the passenger punched and kicked the seat until it was damaged and unusable.

    Below is a link to the criminal complaint regarding the passenger’s interference with flight crew members, which includes photographs of the damaged seat on this American Airlines flight AA4162 operated by Envoy Air. https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/augustin_complaint.pdf

12. “All hail Satan”!

    On a more serious note, from the NYT article:

    “He and his sister said they were traveling to Haiti to escape “religious attacks of a spiritual nature.””

    Hmmm….

13. Satanic Passenger?
    Probably the Air Force One.
    Not even the fanatical crusader Marco Rubio could exorcise so many evil spirits…

14. He apparently also attacked a flight attendant. If you want these kind of people on your flight be my guest. I want them thrown behind bars for attempted murder. You don’t get to practice your sacrifice to the gods voodoo religion on flight crew and passengers. If you think that’s “racist” you’d be the one with the problem.