Onboard disturbances are becoming so frequent that it is hard to distinguish one from another. But last night, another incident occurred when a disturbed passenger wearing a white helmet onboard a Delta flight to Atlanta became so agitated that the captain called for “all able-bodied men” to proceed to the front of the cabin in order to help restrain him.
Delta Flight Diverts After First Class Scuffle With Man Wearing White Helmet
Initial reports suggested it was an off-duty flight attendant who went berserk and tried to open the aircraft door. That is speculation at this point and a characterization of events that Delta Air Lines disputes.
Instead, a Delta spokesperson explained:
Thanks to the crew and passengers of Delta Flight 1730 (LAX to ATL) who assisted in detaining an unruly passenger as the flight diverted to Oklahoma City (OKC). The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement. We apologize to our customers for the delay and any additional inconvenience this caused.
But for more backstory, we turn to a trio of videos onboard uploaded to social media by passengers.
First came a first-hand report from a passenger in the rear of the aircraft, who claimed it was an off-duty flight attendant who caused the disturbance onboard:
UPDATES: According to a passenger the man who tried to take down the Delta airlines 1730 was apparently a flight attendant
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) June 12, 2021
Other reports suggested this passenger boarded with white crash helmet and passed a note claiming the man sitting next to him was a terrorist (see picture above). The man then bolted to the front of the plane and made a PA announcement instructing passengers to prepare to put on oxygen masks, before attempting to open the emergency exit door (impossible when the plane is pressurized and at a high altitude).
Another video emerged showing the initial disturbance upfront:
Terrifying moment a man is restrained by passengers & crew near cockpit.
Based on multiple reports & a check of flight tracks, this appears to be @Delta Flight 1730 (LAX – ATL) which diverted to Oklahoma City.
Developing story, details unconfirmed.pic.twitter.com/nlEa0WCkYY
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) June 12, 2021
Finally, a third video emerged with the lights on. A group of men can be seen restraining the passenger as a flight attendants yells at onlookers to return to their seat.
I am on this flight, here’s another look pic.twitter.com/ItsqC37F7H
— Steve Denton (@SRDenton) June 12, 2021
Shortly after, the flight diverted to Oklahoma City.
CONCLUSION
Stories like this are magnified due to the social media age in which we live, but there is no question they are on the rise and in a very disturbing way. Near-daily high-profile incidents mask that thousands of other flights a day operate without incident, yet are an important reminder of the new age of commercial air travel we live in. Here, a man in a white helmet clearly seemed to be suffering from serious mental issues.
Were you onboard DL1730? Let us know what happened onboard.
image: @SRDenton
Something does not add up … the cabin lights are on in the pic of helmet guy allegedly handing the note; the lights are off when the chaos occurs; then lights back on after things got crazy (obviously at this point the crew turned lights on). These many incidents are clearly pandemic related. Folks have been held hostage for over a year. If they are prone to mental illness then when they do get on an airplane after being cooped up for over a year, stuff like this happens. Very sad!!
Skateboarding is not a crime.
Enough is enough!!! What we need are a couple of Federal Air Marshals to put a couple caps into these wastes of protoplasm!!!
That might serve as a bit of deterrence. If not, at least you get rid of these wasters!!
Firing rounds inside a pressurized aluminum can 5000 ft up sounds like a beast of an idea. Instead of restraining the one person, we can take down 100-140 people all at once. That’ll thin the heard out perfectly. Hopefully that plane crashes into a highly populated area with schools and day cares and maybe even a hospital or two. /S
This man is obviously a Trump supporting, white supremacist, insurrectionist. Perhaps summary execution is in order. Kudos for wearing multiple masks and “following the science” but he failed to maintain six feet of distance.
You do realize that this is going to keep happening. The longer this charade goes on, the more it’s going to continue to trigger the crazy among us.
We can be grateful there are enough people willing and able to assist, in contrast to those whose first response is to start filming on phones or rush to be the first with a breathy ‘breaking news’ video /near death experience post to Facebook, etc.
I’m not convinced that these episodes have anything to do with the circumstances around COVID, like lockdowns and social distancing, restrictions on movement, etc. But one thing is certain: “mental health” is becoming an excuse for unacceptable behaviour of many kinds. The courts are going to be inundated with “mental health” defences more than ever. Just lock ‘em up and let them sort out their mental health issues in prison…
Please share more trip, lounge, flight reviews. This blog is great since it does not push shitty card offers and other scam like OMAT every 2-3 posts. I doubts your readers are interested in these negative stories about idiotic unruly passengers seeking fame
See here’s the issue. As a former bouncer, there’s little doubt I could have taken this man out on my own. The issue that comes up is, would I want to? Probably not. Because I’m gonna hurt him, and I’m gonna get sued. That’s why I will almost never step into a situation where things will get physical anymore. At 6’4”, 345lbs, if I do, somebody is going to get hurt. And the law doesn’t exactly protect me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to get into situations where I don’t necessarily belong, some would say too frequently. But as long as it stays verbal, I have no problem defending people who need the help. So while I would talk to this guy and try to de-escalate, I don’t think I’d physically restrain him unless lives were at risk, which I’m not convinced they were.
Thank goodness there were so many able bodied men on board to protect the dainty members of the fairer sex from any harm.
Or maybe it just seems like there are more of these kerfuffles because there are more and more 24/7 media news sources than ever and travel bloggers who are out there scouring all those world travel news feeds to find and alert us to each and every otherwise obscure incident that they can find to fill their daily content quota and get some more clicks? MUST FEED THE CONTENT MONSTER, MUST FEED THE CONTENT MONSTER…
The more drama the more eyes. Or “if it bleeds it leads”. EVERYTHING has to be at volume 11 these days to attract attention.
Obviously just covering credit card bonuses, great travel deals and cool places to visit isn’t going to cut it anymore. lol
Just a thought.
“PLEADS”, “RESTRAINING”, “OUT-OF-CONTROL”, “CRASH”
Whoa. Not sure if I’ve seen a header packed with quite so much sensationalistic, click-inducing lingo before. Well done!
I guess if your rule is to not use exclamation marks in headers, you’ve surely more than compensated here with your subtle word selection. Well done! (lol)
The report that it was a non-rev / off duty FA would fit in the story of the unruly passenger using the PA. I wouldn’t know how to use it.
What if someone sued Delta alleging sex discrimination? “At no time did the captain extend his offer to the female gender”, the complaint might conceivably read.
In some ways, the present is better with lower fares and frequent flyer miles. In contrast, the old days was where men wore suits and ties to fly and women wore either dresses or business attire. As a kid, I wore a necktie to fly or at least upscale business casual.
Delta has now confirmed it was a flight attendant. That’s concerning…
Mental Illness without appropriate treatment manifests itself even 30,000 feet up. Open the hospitals back up. This is scary ! He could have opened that door!
PAOLA… your response the epitome of ignorance
Nice that f/a’s use kcm to circumvent screening even when not working….which he undoubtedly did. Good thing he wasn’t smart to actually bring a gun (or 3 onboard)
Nice that f/a’s use kcm to circumvent screening even when not working….which he undoubtedly did. Good thing he wasn’t smart enough to actually bring a gun (or 3 onboard)
Being dressed in a manner not appropriate for the environment is the first indication that this individual was in crisis. I would have been very concerned had I been seated next to them.
Not to worry, CNN reports it was a mostly peaceful inflight misunderstanding The plane was never in any real danger of crashing peacefully.
This is one of many Vaxidents. Those inoculated are beginning the mad cow
Phase.. this is the tip of the iceberg of mental illness coming.
The world is too full of brain dead negligent persons. Please GOD rid us of them!
This world is too full of psycho people who have screwed their brains up primarily on alcohol and/or drugs. Please GOD rid us of them.
I would have called for all able-bodied lesbians. They take no crap.
Steve, everything alive is a creation of God. 100m have taken a experimental drug that willl cause spongiform in the brain. may God forgive your thoughts.
While selfish, ignorant, narcissists like yourself contribute nothing, and only make life worse for the rest of the world. How Christian of you…..
If he was an off duty flight attendant, how would he not know that it’s impossible to open the aircraft’s door in mid flight?
Wow, no doubt a moronic democrat, one can tell by his mental illness and violent disposition, no doubt one of Chris’s genetic failures.
How dumb can you be obviously a Biden nut and BLM dummy
Chris, you are a moron. A plane of passengers unite to keep everyone safe and you try do divide this country and claim that this individual is an obvious Trump supporter. Really? He’s wearing a helmet on a flight. If he even cares about casting a vote, I’d be surprised.
A huge pat on the back to all the passengers that immediately jumped into action to help. I’m told the people in the back didn’t get very far because the aisle was flooded with men willing to risk their safety to put an end to the situation and protect the rest of the crew. This is what America is all about! So proud to be an American no matter what your political beliefs are.
Mental health. Emotions acting without the capacity of intellect. So sad. Oh well, guess it was Trump’s fault.
Wow, so much hate and isms and almost zero solutions. Blaming Trump or a political party is %100 chickenshit and if anyone has mental issues it is these making these moronic statements who are proving it as much as white helmet “former” flight attendant guy. Corona virus? Lame, weak, stupid and baseless. C’mon people, with so many people on so many flights odds are this shit is going to happen. How about stating the obvious? We are so overpopulated that there are many people with mental issues that do razy things like this and many with low IQ’s that will say the dumbest things about it while too many miss the real issue and worst of all, it is right in everyone’s faces, everywhere you look, you can’t look anywhere without seeing it… the planet can not support this many people. No one is doing anything about it, no government or university or corporation or scientists are working on it and there are way too many mentally challenged, small IQ, big mouth people just like this example that not only aren’t doing jack to help but only help to make it worse by flying in gross polluting old planes, talking smack they know nothing about, getting in the way and continue eating up resources that are nowhere near sustainable… I am just as guilty, I was just talking to people who can’t hear trying to show them how blind they are. Next we all fly to Mars and kill that planet too! Where is my white helmet?