Another airline passenger meltdown is going viral. A Frontier flight had to be diverted to DFW airport after a passenger became out of control, claiming she was being kidnapped. NBC 5’s Keenan Willard spoke with experts about what’s driving people to act out on airplanes.
Another airline passenger meltdown involving the DFW area is going viral: video from a Frontier Airlines flight that had to be diverted to Dallas after a passenger became out of control and claimed she was being kidnapped.
It comes four months after an American Airlines passenger made national news after trying to exit a flight from DFW to Orlando, claiming another passenger was “not real.”
A Frontier flight from Houston to Denver on Nov. 16 took an unexpected left turn.
Video taken by a passenger showed a woman on the plane becoming upset and struggling with flight attendants, yelling that she was being kidnapped.
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“Stop holding my arms,” the woman could be heard saying as staff attempted to restrain her.
At one point, the woman began climbing over the backs of seats towards the front of the plane.
During the struggle, another passenger could be seen standing up in the aisle, announcing to the other travelers that the unruly woman had been possessed.
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“This is evidence that there’s a real devil that wants to kill each and every one of y’all, including your family members,” the woman claimed. “That’s not her.”
As the first passenger was detained, the other woman sang gospel songs while the whole scene unfolded.
The flight was eventually diverted to Dallas, where police escorted the out-of-control passenger from the plane.
This incident came four months after another Dallas flight went viral when passenger Tiffany Gomas demanded to be let off a plane from DFW to Orlando.
NBC 5 asked an expert: is this type of midair meltdown happening more often?
“No, those incidents I think are still very, very rare,” UT Dallas professor Lynne Vieraitis said.
Vieraitis and UTD professor Sheryl Skaggs studied more than 915 passenger disruptions on planes from 1999-2020.
The researchers said social media can make it seem like extreme disruptions are happening more often, but most incidents don’t go that far.
“What our research has found is that most of the incidents are more verbal misconduct, failure to follow a flight attendant’s instructions, and some physical misconduct,” Vieraitis said.
Their study found the majority of those incidents had the same cause: intoxication.
In a setting where so much of your environment is out of your control, researchers told NBC 5 it’s on passengers to avoid losing their grip – and potentially walking off the plane with an escort.
“Take a deep breath, relax, not with alcohol,” Vieraitis said. “And just kind of, be civil.”
NBC 5 reached out to Frontier Airlines for a response to the video of the diverted flight. We’re waiting for a response.
