We continue to learn more about another mid-air issue. A flight departing from DFW, bound for Montana, had to make an emergency landing after officials say a passenger assaulted a flight attendant. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards has more from recently released court documents and one of the people on board.
Flying out of DFW Airport Wednesday, J.P. Gallagher said his family was simply passing through on their way home to Butte, Montana, by way of Bozeman following a family vacation in Cozumel.
“We were on our way back and about 24 hours into the trip and ready to get home,” said J.P. Gallagher.
But about an hour into American Airlines flight 1497, chaos ensued.
Cell phone video shows law enforcement boarding the plane after it made an emergency landing in Amarillo to arrest passenger Keith Fagiana.
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According to court documents released Friday, the incident began when a passenger complained Fagiana was “violently kicking their chair.” A flight attendant asked him to stop before Fagiana “yelled expletives at the flight attendant and punched the flight attendant in the stomach.”
“As soon as that happened, the flight attendant said, ‘What are you doing?’ With a little better word than that, and then I think the guy went to attack him again. And that's when the other people in the first class, some gentlemen from up there, joined in and helped restrain the gentleman at that time,” he said.
Gallagher said that’s when the flight staff used flex cuffs to restrain Fagiana, and the pilot notified passengers the flight was being diverted.
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On the ground, officials said Fagiana spit at and kicked an officer and later admitted to having “drunk some Captain Morgans at different bars in Las Vegas before the flight.”
This week’s incident is part of a growing trend.
The International Air Transport Association reports incidents of unruly passengers rose 47% globally between 2021 and 2022.
“When you're attacking flight attendants, and they're doing their job, they're doing what they're supposed to do because you had too much to drink or you had other substances in you, that's a sad state of affairs that they have to deal with those type of passengers very often,” said Gallagher.
But despite the eight-hour delay in Gallagher’s already long travel day, he praised those on board.
“I think the reaction of the flight staff and then also the people that were directly surrounding the area, they reacted extremely well, and the people in the flight really maintained calm. It didn't become frantic inside the plane at all,” said Gallagher.
American Airlines released a statement following the incident:
“On Jan. 3, American Airlines flight 1497 with service from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Bozeman (BZN) diverted to Amarillo (AMA) due to a disruptive customer. Law enforcement met the aircraft at AMA, and the customer exited the aircraft. The flight re-departed shortly after. Acts of violence are not tolerated by American Airlines, and we are committed to working closely with law enforcement in their investigation.”
Federal officials charged Fagiana with Interference with a Flight Crew.
