Shocking video has emerged of a fight aboard a Los Angeles-bound flight before take-off from Georgia after a man charged at a fellow passenger because he had placed something in the pocket of his seatback.
Curtis Maurice Clayton, 30, from South Carolina, was arrested at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for initiating the fight with German Montez, 43, on Friday, police said.
He reportedly damaged a police car while being taken into custody.
In the cellphone footage, a man in a black jacket can be seen punching a shorter man in a light-blue hoodie, before flight attendants and other passengers intervene and separate them.
The man in the black jacket then touches his left eye, black and bloody at that point, with his hand. Both men were unmasked.
Passengers of the Delta Airline flight, delayed roughly 30 minutes after its scheduled take-off at 7.15am, watched in horror as the two men scuffled in the aisle.
Passengers of the Los Angeles-bound Delta Airline flight, delayed roughly 30 minutes after its scheduled take-off at 7.15am, watched in horror as two men scuffled in the aisle
Curtis Maurice Clayton, 30, from South Carolina, was arrested at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for initiating the fight with German Montez, 43, on Friday, police said
The man in the black jacket then touches his left eye, black and bloody at this point, with his hand. Both men were unmasked
'I already missed a whole flight...Oh my God. It's literally f****** six am. Who's fighting at six am?' says one of the upset passengers growing frustrated with the flight before the video ends.
Atlanta Police said in a statement that Clayton was 'uncooperative with police and damaged a police vehicle during the investigation.'
Clayton was charged with battery and interference with government property, and booked into the Clayton County Jail. Bond has not been set yet.
Delta told Storyful that officers had 'responded to an unruly customer during the boarding process.'
The statement also said: 'Civility at our airports and on our flights is paramount and something our people and customers deserve without exception...Delta will always put safety and security above all else.'
The incident is the last in an alarming spike of disorderly passengers disrupting flights across the country.
'I already missed a whole flight...Oh my God. It's literally f****** six am. Who's fighting at six am?' says one of the upset passengers (pictured) growing frustrated with the flight before the video ends.
Atlanta Police said in a statement that Clayton was 'uncooperative with police and damaged a police vehicle during the investigation'
The Federal Aviation Authority said in August it had issued more than $1 million in fines to unruly passengers in 2021, and revealed there have already been more than 5,000 unruly passenger reports this year alone
Earlier this week, a California-bounded flight departing from New York had to do an emergency landing in Denver after one of the passengers assaulted a flight attendant and broke her nose.
Brian Hsu, 20, of Irvine, California, was charged with assault and interference with a flight crew for the alleged altercation on board an American Airlines flight from New York to Santa Ana, California on October 27.
The flight attendant inadvertently bumped into Hsu, who was flying first class, and he punched her at least twice.
Mackenzie Rose, a passenger on the flight, said she saw the flight attendant walk by after the incident 'with blood on her mask', and speculated that the attacker might have been drunk or high.
Meanwhile, a photo posted on Twitter appeared to show crew members and passengers duct-taping the man to his seat.
He appeared before U.S. District Judge Autumn Spaeth in Santa Ana on Monday and was released after paying a $10,000 bond. He is next due in court in Denver on November 15.
Hsu has been permanently banned from flying with America Airlines.
'This behavior must stop,' the company said in a statement.
Police met the plane at the gate and immediately apprehended Brian Hsu, 20, who was snapped sitting in Denver International Airport in handcuffs by fellow passenger Mackenzie Rose
An image snapped by a passenger and circulated on Twitter appeared to show crew members and other passengers on American Airlines flight 976 rallying to secure the man to an airplane seat using duct tape following the assault
Mackenzie Rose (pictured), a passenger aboard American Airlines flight 976, said: 'I understand that he actually punched her twice. I saw her walk back down the aisle afterwards and she had blood splattered on the outside of her mask.'
Following the altercation, the head of American Airlines, Doug Parker, called it 'one of the worst displays of unruly behavior we've ever witnessed,' in an Instagram post and video.
'Last night, American Airlines had one of the worst displays we’ve seen, when a passenger violently assaulted one of our flight attendants. Thankfully, our flight attendant is recovering and we are making sure she and her fellow crew members have the support they need.
'The passenger, however, will never be allowed to fly American again and we are doing everything we can to ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. But at the end of the day, while these interactions are not the norm, even one is too many, and they must stop.'
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) announced earlier this year that it would begin to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passengers after a rise in reports of aggressive behavior on flights.
The agency said in August it had issued more than $1 million in fines to unruly passengers in 2021, and revealed there have already been more than 5,000 unruly passenger reports this year alone.
Seventy-five percent of the altercations are mask-use related.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, pictured, condemned the attack on the flight attendant
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