Flight diverted to Texas after fight breaks out

[jeaniebueller]

Man, I would be so pissed if I were a passenger or crew member

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-plane-diverted-20150901-story.html

flight to Chicago from San Diego was diverted to Amarillo, Texas, late Monday after a fight broke out on board among a group of passengers traveling together, according to police in Amarillo. .




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Southwest Airlines Flight 1522 was headed to Midway Airport but was diverted to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport around 10:30 p.m. "after several passengers traveling together became disorderly and, subsequently, refused to obey instructions from the crew," the airline said in a statement.


Six passengers were detained on suspicion of interfering with the flight crew, and a handful of others were kept from reboarding the plane, at the request of the crew, according to a statement from Amarillo police.

Police said no weapons were involved and no injuries were reported. The plane later resumed its flight to Midway.

Amarillo police Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said the passengers involved in the fight appeared to be in their 20s and 30s and were part of a larger group of people who were traveling together.


c Comments

@livin60093 Because racists are *obsessed* with imaginary offenses by people who don't look like them.

Cornholer

at 12:02 PM September 01, 2015

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"We're taking statements from everybody," Neufeld told reporters early Tuesday. "But at this point, I don't really have a lot other than, obviously, several passengers felt like they were definitely out of line, very vocal, very obnoxious-acting. Was it a disruption of the flight? That's going to be up to the FBI to determine."

The six passengers were taken to the county jail at the direction of the FBI, according to police.

The Associated Press contributed.

[zoegirltx]

There's got to be more to this story..I'm sure one of this idiots has taken it to social media.

[lg28]

Sounds to me like a bunch of drunk idiots. I would be super annoyed if I was another passenger on the plane.

[ECB]

Sept 1, 2015 12:36:48 GMT -5 lg28 said:

Sounds to me like a bunch of drunk idiots. I would be super annoyed if I was another passenger on the plane.

I'm curious to find out what this "larger group" is.  And I immediately assumed alcohol was involved.

[Deleted]

As if flying to Midway isn't bad enough already.

[pixy0stix]

More info:

www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/southwest-airlines-passengers-held-after-plane-diverts-amarillo-n419311

Six people were detained after a midair dispute involving unruly passengers ended with a Chicago-bound Southwest Airlines plane diverting to a Texas airport, officials said.

Police were dispatched to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport after receiving a call for assistance from authorities at 10:20 p.m. (11:20 p.m. ET) Monday night, emergency communications center supervisor Anthony Sotelo told NBC News.

A large group of passengers became disorderly during on Flight 1522 from San Diego to Chicago's Midway International Airport and "refused to obey instructions from the crew," Southwest Airlines said in a statement.

The pilots then diverted the flight to Amarillo, "where law enforcement officials met the aircraft and detained six individuals," the airline said.

Another six members of the group got off the plane and remained in Amarillo while the flight took off for Chicago, where it landed without any problems, Southwest said.

The six individuals were detained at around 2:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday, Sotelo said.

"More or less they were just yelling and being loud," one passenger, Caitlin O'Sullivan, told NBC News in a Twitter exchange. "They were yelling to friends that were sitting farther up in the plane. They didn't turn their phones to airplane mode when asked and the flight attendants had to ask them a few times to turn them off."

Another passenger, Tiffany Darge, said the unruly group comprised about 25 people, some of whom sat near her. She and other passengers grew uncomfortable about "the excessive amount of disrespect coming from the individuals," she told NBC News on Twitter. She said they asked for alcohol but the attendants refused. They then accused her of treating them unfairly, Darge said.

At one point, Darge said, she got into an argument with some of them, who in turn "verbally harassed" her. She said she yelled at them, got up from her seat, and was told not to move. "The next time I did I was escorted off the plane by officers in Texas," Darge said.

[pixy0stix]

I had to post and run, but really this sounds like the train incident.

[jeaniebueller]

Found another picture: chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/09/01/six-men-detained-in-texas-after-disrupting-flight-from-san-diego-to-chicago/

[pixy0stix]

Sept 1, 2015 14:32:07 GMT -5 toledo said:

Sept 1, 2015 14:24:50 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I had to post and run, but really this sounds like the train incident.

How so?

Large group of people, talking all together, calling out to their friends in other seats. Boisterous because they're a large group. Plus the line from the one lady that got into a verbal altercation using "disrespect" can be a code word for minorities not sitting down and shutting up.

I don't know. From the second article it doesn't seem like there would be much to divert the flight for, other than the other lady starting a verbal fight. I checked, and that lady is white (per her twitter picture).

[pixy0stix]

More with tweets from I think a person who was with the group  looks like she was on the plane with them but not affiliated with group - www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-Bound-Flight-Diverted-After-Altercation-on-Plane-323569771.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_CHBrand

[pixy0stix]

I'm kind of down the rabbit hole with this. Another (white) passenger retweeted the girl's tweet about racial profiling.

[sangria]

Was this a work function? 25 people traveling together is a lot!

[pixy0stix]

Sept 1, 2015 14:57:39 GMT -5 sangria said:

Was this a work function? 25 people traveling together is a lot!

Another article I read stated that they were a soccer team traveling to a tournament.

[sangria]

Also- if things got bad enough to divert the plan (which obvs they did) I'm shocked nobody took a video.

[jigsy]

When I was a flight attendant, I made sure that I wasn't dealing with any chuckle-fuck behavior. At the end of the day, if a crew member tells you to do something, you should do it. If they tell you to turn your phone into airplane mode, you should do it. If they refuse to serve you alcohol, you don't get to get verbal with them. FA's are there in a safety capacity, and there is no way I would have wanted to be responsible for the 150 lives on the plane when 25 of them refused to listen to simple instruction.

[sugarglider]

I read this story, and think, oh, male athletes aged 19-23 from San Diego? Yeah, they were probably being rowdy. On the other hand, they're all of Arabic dissent? Probably some racial profiling. Both scenarios seem completely plausible to me. It was probably a bit of both.

If the airline was in the wrong, it's good for these guys that it's federal jurisdiction.

[orangello]

This sounds mostly like a bunch of obnoxious 20 year olds acting like bros. I mean, refusing to turn iPhones off? Shouting back and forth on a plane? Asking for alcohol when they're not legal to drink?

This seems like a much different situation than a bunch of ladies on a wine train having a laugh.