A man was arrested on an American Airlines flight Monday after growling and snarling while headed to the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Video of the incident captured passenger, Timothy Armstrong, 61, of Las Vegas, on Flight 1802 from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, being combative. He’s seen in the video yelling at the flight attendant who then demands him to sit down.
Armstrong shouts “Joe Biden! Really?” before returning back to his seat. Throughout the video he is seen adjusting his mask and at one point growls.
The video was filmed by fellow passenger, Dennis Busch, who shared the videos to Facebook.
“He began by yelling at the Asian woman in front of me to sit down when she was standing to deal with a back issue,” his post reads. “He proceeded to tell multiple flight attendants that she and her companion ‘didn’t belong here.’ After asking him to calm down the man went into a complete meltdown of racist, sexist and belligerent comments.”
After landing, Salt Lake City police took Armstrong into custody and removed him from the aircraft. Paramedics took Armstrong to a nearby hospital and he was later cited for public intoxication and disorderly conduct, according to the police.
American Airlines sent the following statement regarding the incident:
“American Airlines flight 1802 with service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Salt Lake City (SLC) was met by law enforcement upon arrival at SLC due to an unruly passenger. The flight landed safely at SLC where local law enforcement removed the disruptive passenger from the aircraft. We thank our crew for their professionalism and our customers for their understanding.”
American Airlines has placed Armstrong on their “internal refuse list” pending further investigation, a spokesperson said.
Unruly passenger reports and mask related incident reports have risen significantly since 2020, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. As of Sep. 7, 2021, there have been 4,184 unruly passenger reports and 3,057 mask-related incidents on U.S. flights.
The FAA stated that an unruly passenger can be fined up to $37,000 per violation. This was previously set at $$25,000.
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