On Tuesday’s JetBlue flight 1926 from London Gatwick to New York JFK, an incident involving an intoxicated passenger required the intervention of both crew members and fellow passengers.
A man on board the Airbus A321neo began to exhibit erratic and aggressive behavior towards his travel companion and the flight crew. He was clearly intoxicated, and not from overserving – but from overserving himself with a bottle of liquor he’d brought onto the aircraft.
Four off-duty prison guards and two flight attendants had to subdue the man, which was filmed and shared on social media. One person can be heard yelling “Take him down.”
On arrival in New York the plane was met by law enforcement. Despite the disturbance, and drinking his own hooch on the aircraft, the passenger was not arrested. After all, anyone can understand the need not to be sober for a narrowbody flight across the Atlantic, especially a daytime (longer) Westbound flight. Actually, it is not at all clear why no arrest was made.
According to JetBlue, the passenger “began acting erratically and aggressively toward his travel companion and members of the inflight crew.” Crew discovered “an open bottle of liquor the customer brought on board and indications of intoxication.” The passenger was restrained by both crew and witnesses on the aircraft, whose help the airline expressed appreciation form.
According to the Port Authority of New York New Jersey, there was a report of a disturbance on flight 1926 but mentioned that no arrests were made. No injuries were reported.
New York?, Enough said
Spirit offered him a status match
Crimes committed on planes flying over the United States fall within the “Special Aviation Jurisdiction” of Federal law. This guy very well might be contacted by the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, and still might be prosecuted for federal crimes.
It’s unclear if there was a crime that NYPD police could have even arrested him for – New York law enforcement has no authority to prosecute acts committed while flying over other states – but even if the guy had done this on the ground in Times Square he wouldn’t have gotten arrested under current NYPD guidelines – at most he would receive a Summons to appear before a judge – unless he seriously hurt somebody.
He cannot be allowed to walk away. He has broken the law and endangered everyone on board. He must be charged and fined with a “no fly” for 12 months.
Fly with the dogs get the fleas
Good on Port Authority police.
NO ARRESTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE because we arrest way too many people as is. Our jails are overcrowded. We have the highest proportion of citizens in prison compared to any other country. Shame on us for that, shame on anyone calling for arrests when none are needed.
“Drinking is own cooch on the aircraft”
Maybe there are regional slang differences, but where I am from it is “hooch” not “cooch” (which has a very very different meaning).
When other passengers get involved, there may be crimes committed by them and they are not legally protected like the crew is (it is also not a good Samaritan situation.) I wish it wasn’t so but I believe this is the way the law is written. I don’t believe that the crew can deputize anyone to help them do their safety job. The drunk guy may be able to sue the people putting hands on him.
“not to be sober for a narrow body flight across the Atlantic”
The amount of alcohol you consume should be a direct relation to the size of aircraft. A passenger who gets drunk and causes problems will be much safer on a wide body aircraft where there is…. more passengers?? Ooops I cannot make sense of this.
Sounds eerily reminiscent of the way the TSA handles people trying to board planes with loaded guns.
@Dignity-you are an idiot
@Dignity-what a stupid thing to say. If prisons are over-crowded then build more of them. And frankly I don’t care if a prisoner feels “crowded”.