An ugly situation unfolded prior to a United Airlines redeye flight to Houston after a man became agitated when asked to move out of a first class seat that was not even his own. Before the dust settled, the thug repeatedly punched a female gate agent.
Crazed Passenger First Tries To Steal First Class Seats Then Punches United Airlines Gate Agent When Told To Move
Cody Benjamin Lovins, 47 years old, and his wife took a pair of first class seats on a United Airlines late-night flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Houston (IAH). Neither of those seats was assigned to them and when Naya Jimenez boarded the flight, she found her seat occupied.
When she gently explained that Lovins’ wife was in her seat, the couple directed her to find another seat. Eventually, a flight attendant came by and Jimenez asked for assistance. A gate agent was brought onboard where the Lovins explained they had decided to upgrade themselves because they faced a flight delay earlier. The gate agent explained that self-upgrades were not permitted, prompting anger (Mr. Lovins was also slurring his words at this point). Refusing to move, the gate agent said that the Lovins would have to step off the aircraft and could not travel to Houston.
Lovins then stood up and attacked the gate agent, repeatedly punching her (Jimenez said this was a flight attendant, but it appears to be a gate agent, as does United’s statement below on the incident). He was pulled off by other passengers aboard and retreated to the front galley, where he pulled open an emergency exit door and was about to jump (to his death or least broken bones) when he was pulled back to safety.
He was then arrested and charged with battery.
A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed the incident:
“On Sunday night, our team at San Francisco International Airport immediately contacted law enforcement after a disruptive customer assaulted one of our customer service employees during boarding. This customer’s behavior was unacceptable, he has been banned from future United flights, and we are working with local law enforcement in their investigation.”
It is not clear if the gate agent was injured, but she was certainly battered. It also appears to me the gate agent may have been male, though Jimenez has repeatedly stated it was a female United employee who was attacked.
CONCLUSION
This is a horrible incident. While I can understand the frustration of a flight delay, you cannot just help yourself to a first class seat and then attack a gate agent. A permanent ban is a good start, but Lovins should face prison time and a steep fine for his poor conduct onboard.
image + video: Naya Jimenez
I’m a Nurse and i worked on the covid wards (not sure it’s the correct name in English) and this is getting out of hand. People just gotten so bat s&@t crazy since 2020.
I thought the story was he was supposed to be in FC (upgraded?), but went to what he thought was his economy seat which was occupied. He refused the upgrade and insisted on the occupied economy seat. Or am I mixing this story up with a similar (near identical) incident.
So much airline crap going on it’s hard to keep up!
The article said that they themselves upgraded to first class from economy because they had a delay earlier. The attendant told them that there’s no self upgrade policy and they would have to return to their economy seats. Drunk, entitled people. But, who knows like you said, there’s so much of this going on.
I didn’t see this story covered elsewhere. In the video, it appears to be taking place in the first class cabin.
So much anger over a 3 hour flight. Why can’t people just grow the f- up?
Lovins isn’t apparently not getting any lovin at home
That is such a misogynistic comment. A man can’t control himself and it is his wife’s fault. Not penny at all
Where did I say he deserved anything or that it was the wife’s fault, lol, simply an observation
It’s only an observation if you were there to witness him not getting any lovin’ or he told you himself. Otherwise, it is a very poor attempt at a joke that deflects from the fact that a grown a** man can’t follow instructions in a public place!! And resorted to physical violence against a WOMAN!! It’s exhausting how ignorant people are these days!!
It was a joke, Marcie, based on his name.
COLOR IS BEAUTIFUL SO COLORBLINDNESS IS NOT THE ANSWER …
.RESPECT AND LOVE AND APPRECIATION FOR ALL IS THE KEY.
THIS WOUKD BE A VERY BLAND WORKD WITHOUT COLOR.
GOD DID NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES.
Simmah down Marcie and have a sense of humor you will enjoy life a whole lot more.
Glad United banned this entitled jerk from ever soiling their airplanes ever again.
It’s exceedingly unfortunate but I agree with you completely that people like this need to face prison for a couple of years. After a number of very public examples, people will realize that behavior like this means long term incarceration and exercise some self-control.
I don’t know why you would think that anyone would learn from such incarcerations. Even one sip of a drink can overcome such learning and sometimes it doesn’t even take that. The other day a 23 year old woman was stopped for speeding (95 mph) and they found that her license was suspended. They also found that it was suspended 63 (SIXTY THREE!) times for not responding to previous tickets (23 Y.O.). So they gave her a ticket.
I’d be happy if these unruly passengers were all held together on an otherwise empty plane in a maintenance hangar with no food, alcohol, a/c, or attendants. “You’ll be free to go when this plane is full or when you’re the last over-grown toddler standing.”
Airlines have to cooperate to produce an airline-centric ‘do not fly” list. So, this creep cannot fly on United … he will, simply, book on another airline 🙁
Not OK with that as an airline centric “do not fly” list can and most likely will be abused at some point by a power tripping FA. Prison or better yet restitution would be appropriate.
Nope, Dale, you’re half-wrong. Prison? Yes! But there has to be a system in place that prevents terrible actors from flying on any aircraft. If they threaten safety on one airline, they do on others. No fly list!
Crazy old white guys are really having a moment.
Yeah very unusual right? Usually it’s the blacks that make scenes on flights.
Yea it is unusual! Usually these old white Republicans are too busy shooting children for bouncing balls on their yard or ringing their doorbells to cause disturbances on planes
look every race has these awful violent people. It’s awful and idk what to do about it. But still—while being genuinely empathetic to all lives lost to senseless violence and actual mental illness—communist governments in the last century killed more people than individuals did. Therefore, the right to self defense must remain non-negotiable sadly despite these tragedies. I’m not a big gun guy but the reality is there are tons of guns owned by law abiding folks. You really think trying to disarm those people is really going to help things? Most sensible law abiding gun owners are not giving up their guns. Doesn’t the UK have like tons of knife attacks? Anyway I think Fred Douglas may have said it best there.
To race, Kamala, as an example, could have held town halls on CNN and done actual outreach to white and black America, to actually try to heal and build bridges or whatever else, instead of never ending division and rhetoric. I hear your frustration about older white republicans or anyone with true racist tendencies. But why is the anti-racist party, for the people, for the children, not actually looking at ways of healing the human divide? Why continue tactics, that the Nazis also used, to use constant personal attacks to demonize the other side. If there’s a “new right” then where is the “new left”? Does it exist yet? Hint: it does, Marianne and RFK Jr.
https://i.postimg.cc/vTMJS0SH/023a5b4b1ca33472.png
The majority of mass shooters in America are white males. If somehow the US becomes communist and the military decides to follow orders to detain and/or attack citizens your personal defense weapons and poorly organized militias of the US are not going to stop the US military. The amount of money funneled to the military makes that impossible at this point. However it is extremely unlikely that the US would become a communist nation. If we lose our democratic republic it is far more to become a true plutocracy, an oligarchy, a theonomy, or God forbid an ecclesiocracy posing as a theocracy. If that were the case, the military would not be sent to detain the majority of a second amendmenters who value military grade weapons over lives, so you’ll likely be just fine.
Well you couldn’t be more wrong JMS42. The vast majority of mass shootings go unreported due to location, victims ethnicity and perpetrator’s ethnicity. I venture to guess that you may know these answers. Whether you like them or not. But the vast majority of mass shootings occur in major urban areas controlled by the left, with horrible anti gun laws, and with a massive amount of minorities. And those minorities are the ones responsible for the majority of mass shootings every year. The major news wont report it because its against the narrative. You may see it in the local/regional news.
Call it racist or whatever. But its a fact. Facts are reality. Not your dreamland crap.
The guys that shot the kid with ball was black.
Pay attention.
How about the weatherman in Texas who threatened to shoot a little girl for ringing his doorbell while looking for her kitten… he was as white as your hood
Maybe Paxton is slightly behind with safety. https://i.postimg.cc/kGdDZXsx/IMG-5919.jpg
@Chad thanks, I can’t keep up with everything and thought I could trust him for once. Didn’t bother to check. All of my points still stand, but I like knowing the full context of what I was responding to. Thanks again.
Blacks act up everywhere not just airports. They are inheritly aggressive and violent with a big chip on their shoulder. They are the biggest Karens.
SMH I fill sorry for you. Yòu must have a lot of anger and frustration built up in you?. for you to say that about Black People. It’s People like you that make it bad for others.
You can say this and I can’t call the dementia patient Brandon?? Make it make sense. Stuart is right. All types of crazy. Pray.
Speaking of…
President Joe Biden allegedly participated in “a criminal scheme” to exchange money for policy decisions, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY), citing an internal FBI document they say contains evidence of the alleged bribery which took place when Biden was Vice President.
https://twitter.com/GOPoversight/status/1653821776227344389
Vietri, you’re wasting your breath, even though you are one of the few here wo are talking sense. It seems that there is always someone who will bring race into it, and others will jump on that whether or not it has any relevance at all. Every time that happens it pushes us just a tiny bit further away from true color-blindness.
When those accusations come from somewhere other than Republican politicians there might be something to l9ok at. These same pathetic Senators are still defending the Mob boss, Russian stooge, and insurrectionist Trump.
Wow just wow …BELIEVABLY .RACIST
It’s been proven that the majority of violence is perpetrated by racists with the surname “Lara.”
This is becoming exhausting. It doesn’t matter what race, sex, or age a person is you simply need to pay for what you want and stop stealing and catching an attitude when caught or better yet stop serving alcohol in airports.
What an idiot!
Hopefully the arrest, jail time, bail, attorneys fees, conviction, sentence, and civil suit/victim compensation will help him gain some perspective on just how big of a deal to make about a flight delay/seat change.
The seat map from flight status shows 2A and 1E flew out empty on that flight. I think Jimenez and his wife were in those seats, and decided to move themselves to the bulkhead together.
Naya Jimenez seems to have been traveling alone, no mention of a husband being on the plane.
Thanks got the names reversed. The assaulter and his wife is what I meant.
Don’t waste your time with idiots who can’t read at a third grade level.
Jail
People have gone nuts in this country.
Daily damage reports and forecasts stay instability and chaos ahead for years—if we don’t course correct and yesterday. Again I’m not trying to worry people by stating what people are saying, but that *is* what they are saying. Humanity needs to put its foot down right now with all of this ridiculousness so we can jump timelines to a better tomorrow. It’s a perfect time to do it in astrology, too—with this full moon eclipse in Scorpio—a total new beginning—a snake shedding its skin. We can’t continue on this current trajectory of destruction and insanity. As quoted before, there will either be mass enlightenment or mass global destruction. We have to face the truth. That is enlightenment. This country cannot and I mean *cannot* survive another four years of Brandon. We are already off the cliff. There’s just no way.
Case in point
https://i.postimg.cc/L5jt4vsZ/26-D7-A829-84-CC-4607-A132-E2-D8-E905229-F.jpg
Are you referring to the president? His name is Biden not Brandon, you idiot.
Please tell that to Kelli Stavast, NBC News. But honestly props to her, too. Best comment:
‘must give it to the reporter to think quickly of saying “Let’s go Brandon” even though she really knew what the crowd really said’
Until someone is banned across all airlines for their behavior on a single airline, none of this will stop. People don’t see any real consequence to their actions.
Police are involved, flight assaulters are prosecuted – see the woman who knocked out some of the SW flight attendants teeth on the SMF-SAN flight.
I actually don’t think flight bans have much of a deterrent to the couple times a year leisure flight crowd. The criminal justice system should be plenty.
Flight bans open up a whole can of worms for borderline cases with power tripping flight attendants and not much recourse.
It’s an American centric website. It’s not just America, It’s everywhere. But here it is on display more for others to see every day. Trust me, the craziness is everywhere.
Sorry, was meant to be a comment for @warren below.
Happens to me all the time and idk why cause I swear I be pressing the right reply button, even if do also have spelling or grammar mistakes in the body.
I concur, and it would be very easy and inexpensive to do. All that is required is a – no fly list database implemented and made accessable to all the airlines. Why the FAA won’t mandate this is a mystery.
The US has become the Jerry Springer show. Evil has rotted the brains of so many people.
evil, and the evils of communism*
You misspelled “Fascism.”
I was surprised they state that he’s 47. I would have thought 67. All that anger is eating him from the inside.
Since Covid, anger across the world is beyond comprehension. People are broken. I am starting to question a lot as a result.
Not to be even more preachy than I already come across but I pray it will all work out somehow. Some say the current state of affairs is a slow controlled drip to wake up the masses slowly because otherwise the truth all at once would be too much for most to handle. Probably not..too hopeful of a theory probably.
But while things are pretty bad, they also could also be worse. I find on a macro level that things look bleak but on a micro level they don’t as much, at least in my neighborhood, family and friends. A lot of processing, transmuting, contemplation, forgiveness, etc is occurring. so hopefully the collective will be able to flip the macro energy eventually too. The ego says we are separate waves in this ocean. But really we are the ocean. Hard to shift mental tides in that perspective, but it’s happening. As each person becomes the best they can be it will ripple throughout. Obviously not everyone is going do that but the law of attraction states only 51% majority is required. Again who knows. I go back and forth from it’s all doomed to it will be okay. Either way it’s quite the time to be alive to see if the collective can rise up the occasion
https://i.postimg.cc/zfRSPJ1j/81878364-567-D-4-AC5-A198-15-AC4-CE32394.jpg
Or it could just be people filming this stuff more…incidents like this have been happening for ages, even before Covid, we’re just probably becoming more aware of the incidents that do happen. It would be interesting to see some statistics to see if incidents like these are actually happening more and even what the numbers of incidents like these are…I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual events are an insignificant percentage of flights.
I would agree with this. There is definitely an increase, it’s just now we know about them because they are recorded for everyone to see. The increase is probably 10-20%, from what I recall.
“The increase is probably 10-20%, from what I recall.”
Source?
There’s more nuance to Stuart’s comment than this story or plane incidents alone alone. Think bigger.
Keep telling yourself that lol
I’m continually amazed at regular people’s ability to produce such clear, comprehensible, high-quality video, and yes, even in portrait orientation no less, of action sequences like these.
To them I say, “Chapeau!” (Slow…hand…clap…)
Lol.
True. Was unable to do the same myself tonight.
He should have done it in say, Singapore.
Why would there be any question as to whether or not he should face jail time? He assaulted someone, he goes to jail. End of story.
Isn’t there a database established that can ban this type of traveler from all commercial flying?
Nope, though that is being debated.
No sympathy for these jerks. Permanent ban. Good job, United!
Jail time, sure, but prison time? Your idea of punishment is pretty extreme.
This guy made a terrible mistake
You don’t just mistakenly hit someone dude.
I think that is the hardest thing to grapple with as a society. Even a night or two in jail does help some people though. A neighbor went to jail just for a few days for misdemeanor battery prior to an arraignment for felony battery and it helped them course correct, so far. Are things perfect, no, but it did seem to shock them out of it a bit. We need more support in this country (and world). I don’t think mass incarceration is the answer (just watch Just Mercy) and I don’t have the answers here but perhaps I’m sure someone does. Aaron? Billy?
So why is this a shocker? It is getting worse by the day. Rude, out of control, me first people all around us.
It’s time that flight crews sued these unruly passengers and the airlines as a whole. Unruly passengers should be banned from ALL airlines once they cause issues on another airline. Maybe this across-the-board ban will keep idiots from creating trouble onboard. Airlines need to support their crews as United did by banning this jerk. Now let’s see the other airlines follow in United footsteps. Share the information and get him on the No Fly list!!!
I’ve just finished watching The Night Agent on Netflix. I can’t wait for The Gate Agent.
Should have let him jump.
This is ban worthy and the pax should be charged.
Good breeding always shows!
It is acceptable to express frustration when the airline loses luggage, overbooks, or dozens of other things that create hassles. Even then, you have to remember the agent you express your frustration to is likely not the one who goofed.
Here, this couple decided to steal a pair of first-class seats without checking with anyone. They likely and rightfully felt entitled due to the earlier delay. You do not help yourself after boarding. You ask the gate agent during an infrequent lull if they will upgrade you. If the seats are available, you have a good chance of getting them.
After boarding the aircraft, go to your assigned seats. As they prepare to close the doors, if you see open business or first-class seats, ask the flight attendant to move you before pushing back from the gate. On a late-night flight, they will likely make the change.
I make these requests frequently, but I usually fly alone. I do not drink and tell the FA that so they know I am not seeking free alcohol. It is impressive how FAs will go out of their way to make someone’s flight more enjoyable.
Beating an airline employee over something so petty is beyond the pale. Airlines need a blacklist where they can add names and keep people from flying commercially for 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. “Sir, your behavior on a May flight on American has you on our dangerous passenger list. No airline can sell you a ticket. Although, if we have an extra seat next to you, we will pay security to fly beside you for $1000 domestically and $3000 internationally. Plus, you cover their meals, hotel, and other expenses for the trip. Otherwise, you can try booking in June of next year.”
Guess you didn’t see the video of the dude who was screaming and hakim threats bc of the BABY who happened to be crying in the seat in front of him
Hint….he wasn’t an “entitled old white guy.”
Its occurring with people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds