United Airlines Passenger Bites Flight Attendant, Spits At Others, and Causes Emergency Landing

United flight 762 from Miami to Newark diverted to Orlando on Tuesday when a woman on board bit a flight attendant and hurled profanities at fellow passengers.

She started screaming at those around her and when flight attendants attempted to de-escalate the situation – and restrain her with zip ties – she bit a male flight attendant’s shoulder, tearing a piece of his uniform. The woman also spit at another passenger and threatened them. Bizarrely she also shouted “Go back to Russia, old lady” at a woman in the cabin..

She accused passengers and crew of having “attitude problems” and claiming, “You tryin’ to kill me.”

Once the Boeing 737 MAX was on the ground, law enforcement boarded the aircraft and took off the aircraft as the cabin broke into applause. The flight was delayed by approximately three and a half hours and needed a fresh crew before continuing to Newark.

According to United,

United Flight 762 from Miami to Newark stopped in Orlando on Tuesday evening after a passenger became aggressive and disruptive. Our flight attendants worked to de-escalate the situation and protect other customers and after landing in Orlando, law enforcement met the flight, and the passenger was removed. We’re grateful to our team for their professionalism and for looking out for the safety of our customers and their fellow United employees.

Fortunately everyone appears to be safe, and it’s almost certain that no one will have to worry about running into this passenger on a future United Airlines flight – which means it’s actually safer to fly United today than it was yesterday!

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. In other headline news , Brandon was visited by a taxidermist , so he can be rolled out at the convention by his top fund-raiser , George-Amal , .

  2. When I saw the headline, I thought to myself I bet Miami was involved. Sure enough…

  3. Floriduh is such a classy place…replete with elegant, charming and quality people

  4. Was it Marjorie Taylor Greene? This tracks with what she frequently demonstrates in terms of intelligence and decorum. #MAGAmindset

  5. You all should keep politics out of this and stop insulting people of either party! Thus is about an unfortunate incident that happened aboard an airplane. None of you know her politics and she is clearly not all there. It could be drugs, or mental illness, and if she was acting like that prior to boarding, she wouldn’t have been allowed on the airplane.

  6. Why not just knock her teeth out of this animal, put a plastic bag over its head and be done with it?

  7. With the “SMD…B!” being hurled at another passenger, it just goes to show you that you can never be too sure these days.

  8. I never fly in the U.S., but will be flying from NY to LA in two weeks. Gary, can you tell us if this horrendous behavior is largely U.S. based as it seems to be?

  9. I hope the person bitten and the others are taking something to counteract rabies. Rabies can spread just from infected saliva. The person biting should be quarantined until her rabies status is somewhat confirmed but rabies can hide for months before it manifests itself.

  10. This is a person who ought to be permanently banned from ALL flying in the USA. Flying is NOT a “right,” it is a commodity for which one pays, and subjects the passenger to common rules of passage…which can and may be revoked for “cause.”

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