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That’s when a savage brawl broke out between two passengers trying to get out of a plane at Miami International Airport on Sunday night – the latest of more than 3,000 reported violent incidents in air travel. since January.
Kiera Pierre Louis, who bears her hip-hop name Milli Miami, recorded the entire incident, which erupted when a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia landed in Miami on Sunday around 9:30 p.m.
She told Local 10 News that the white man got angry with the black passenger because he thought he was taking too long to retrieve his luggage from the overhead compartment and was blocking the exit.
The white man then threw the first punch, she said, and called the black passenger the “n” word.
“I couldn’t believe what was going on,” she said. “You can see the white man above the black passenger and beat him between the seats,” she said.
“The flight attendant got involved, the white man’s wife got involved, her son, I believe his son’s girlfriend, uh, everyone was just involved.”
She also noted that the white man who allegedly started the fight was allowed to leave the plane, while the black man was asked to stay behind.
“Racism, of course,” said Pierre Louis. “The black passenger had to wait on the plane, when he didn’t even start it, and the police, as we got off the plane, walked right past the person, the white man, who actually started it all. “
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A video posted to Instagram shows the moment a white passenger pushed a black passenger into the seat of a Frontier Airlines plane as passengers attempted to disembark on Sunday evening.
A black woman and a white woman, presumably the men’s wives, got involved, with the black woman trying to grab the white man while the white woman pulled his hair out.
Eventually, a group of other passengers and a flight attendant managed to pull the white man away from the black man and force him down the aisle.
Miami-Dade Police, however, said the black passenger was “not detained” but instead opted to stay on the plane so they could file a police report.
In the end, they said, he decided not to press charges and the white man who allegedly started the brawl was allowed to leave.
The nearly three-minute video shows two men arguing, when a white man suddenly grabs a black man and pushes him down into the seat. A black woman then appears to get involved and begins attacking a white woman, who grabs her by the hair as a flight attendant asks what happened.
The white man, meanwhile, continues to hit the black man, leading the black woman to grab the white man by the head, as people try to pull him away from the black man.
Eventually, several other passengers and a flight attendant managed to pull the white man out of the black man and push him forward to disembark.
The black man could be seen trying to follow him, but the black woman seemed to be holding him back, as others on the plane shouted at him to “get out”.
The incident allegedly occurred on a Frontier Airlines flight that landed in Miami from Philadelphia around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night.
Frontier Airlines referred any questions about the incident to the Miami-Dade Police Department, but confirmed in a statement to Local 10 News that a fight broke out on its flight from Philadelphia to Miami.
“All the passengers involved were urged to stay on the plane, but some ignored the flight crew’s instructions,” the statement said. “In the end, local law enforcement got involved.”
Sunday’s fight is just the latest in a series of violent incidents that have been documented at terminals and inside planes since air travel began to pick up in the wake of the COVID pandemic -19.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced in June that airlines have reported more than 3,000 incidents involving unruly passengers since January 1, with about 76% of the nearly 3,300 reports involving passengers who refused to wear masks on board their flights.
He has collected $ 682,000 of these penalties since the new regulation came into effect.
Although the FAA has not followed up on such reports in previous years, a spokesperson said it was safe to assume this year’s numbers are the highest on record.
Since announcing a “zero tolerance policy” against unruly passengers in January, the FAA has announced potential fines – some exceeding $ 30,000 – against more than 80 passengers. That’s about three times the average number of cases over the past decade, according to FAA figures.
In one case last month, a 29-year-old woman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault while attempting to check-in for another Frontier Airlines flight with her two children at Orlando International Airport and hit an employee with a keyboard.
And in May, a young woman on a plane from the southwest in San Diego, Calif., Punched a flight attendant in the face. She was charged with felony battery.
Following the violent incidents, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it would resume self-defense training for flight attendants and airline pilots, which was halted last year due to the pandemic.
The FAA has reported an increase in violent incidents at airports and on airplanes as more people begin to travel as the COVID pandemic subsides. Here, people were seen queuing for TSA screening at Orlando International Airport, where a Frontier Airlines staff member was assaulted by an unruly passenger last month.
Some airlines have also decided to ban the sale of alcohol on their flights following these violent incidents.
In May, American Airlines officials announced that they would not resume serving alcohol to passengers in the main cabins until at least September, saying they had seen “some of these stressors create profound situations. disturbing on board planes “.
Vice President of Air Services Brady Byrnes added: “Be clear: American Airlines will not tolerate assault or mistreatment of our crews.”
“While we appreciate that customers and crew members are eager to get back to ‘normal’, we will act cautiously and deliberately when restoring pre-COVID practices.”
American Airlines halted the sale of alcohol in economy class at the end of March 2020 to limit interactions between passengers and flight attendants during the pandemic. The airline now says the ban will remain in effect until September 13, when the Transportation Security Administration plans to lift the mask’s warrant on all flights.
Southwest Airlines has also decided to halt plans to return alcohol to customers for sale as the COVID pandemic wears off.
“In light of the recent increase in in-flight passenger disruption incidents across the industry, we have made the decision to suspend the previously announced restart of alcohol service,” said Southwest spokesperson Chris Mainz.
Mainz said the decision may disappoint some customers, “but we believe it is the right decision at this time in the interests of the safety and comfort of all customers and the crew on board.”
The airline has not set new dates for the sale of alcohol.
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