Unruly Passenger Punches Flight Attendant Aboard Delta Flight

ATLANTA, GA — A Delta Air Lines flight was grounded this week after an in-flight disturbance, which included the assault of a flight attendant, according to news reports. An unruly passenger tried to enter the cockpit, according to witnesses, and had to be physically restrained.

Nearly an hour after Delta Airlines Flight 129 took off from Seattle to Beijing, the plane had to return to Sea-Tac Airport Thursday evening to remove the irate passenger and regroup. (To get notified of more local news like this, click here to sign up for the Atlanta Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The incident occurred in first class and was quelled with the help of multiple passengers. One of them told TV station KIRO that it all started when a man began to pace up and down the aisle. “He was going back and forth to the bathroom and then he started going toward the exit door,” he said.

The man then punched a flight attendant who tried to get him to sit down, the witness told the TV station. That's when another passenger jumped in to help, and things got wild. “They broke two bottles of wine on his head,” he was quoted as saying.

The witness said even after all that, the irate passenger was still not subdued. “I tried to choke him and he just threw me off like a rag doll,” the man, who did not want to be identified, told KIRO. He added that the passenger said that he needed some air.

The flight, which was somewhere above western Canada by that time, turned around and headed back home, landing at Sea-Tac at 7:10 p.m.

Delta sent the following statement to Patch:

"Flight 129 returned to Seattle following a security incident with a passenger. The passenger was restrained onboard and was removed from the flight by law enforcement without further incident when the aircraft arrived back in Seattle. The flight re-departed for Beijing later Thursday evening."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident, but "there is no information to suggest this is a national security threat," agency specialist Ayn Dietrich-Williams told CNN.

The passenger, only identified so far as a 23-year-old man from Florida, was taken into custody at Seattle's airport. But the commotion was far from over.

According to Dustin Jones, a fellow passenger, he saw the man handcuffed, zip tied into a wheelchair and rolled into the terminal. “He started yelling for help. And so he turned the wheelchair over in the middle of the airport, screaming for people to help him, just being belligerent,” he told KIRO.

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The FBI said that "more details about the incident will be provided and the charges announced at the subject's initial appearance in federal court," CNN reports.

At least three people were treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to local media.

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