Chaos broke out on a Southwest Airlines plane in Dallas after a passenger punched another passenger, officials said Wednesday, captured in a viral video.
In the latest incident of unruly passenger behavior, Phoenix-bound passengers were boarding Flight 117 at Love Field when a man in a tan blazer stood over a heavily tattooed man and began punching him, video footage showed.
Moments earlier, the man in the blazer had approached the tattooed gentleman, asking for his address “and he actually gave him the address and then he started punching her,” eyewitness Caitlin Johnson, 32, told NBC News on Wednesday. told.
Johnson, a speech-language pathologist at Arizona who was a few rows behind the chaos, said the tattooed man was seated and in no position to fight or defend himself.
Johnson said, “He probably punched the guy a good four times before he started recording.”
Minutes earlier in the gate area, the tattooed man allegedly accidentally bumped the wife of his last attacker, Johnson said he learned from other passengers.
Johnson said, “The Blazer guy lost it, he broke down, he got excited about it.” “People waiting said the man in the blazer started mouthing off to her outside the plane (after the collision) and she ignored him.”
Other passengers jumped to the ground to break it up before both passengers could be taken off the plane.
SWA acknowledged that the incident had occurred but declined to elaborate.
“We have nothing to share other than our flight crew are well trained in de-escalation and we look forward to their assistance in managing the situation and ensuring the safety and comfort of other passengers in the cabin,” according to a Dallas-based statement. Appreciate.” the carrier.
The man who was thrashed did not want to get off the plane but ground personnel insisted that he get off to get medical treatment.
“Somebody came up to the tattoo guy and said, ‘Sir you have to get off the plane, you need medical attention,'” Johnson said. “He said, ‘I can’t. I have to go to work.’ But he came off. His face was swollen like a baseball, he was in rough shape.”
A representative for Dallas Police confirmed that officers responded to the aircraft at Love Field that day but declined to comment further.
No arrests were made.
Johnson said she reached out to the man in the tan blazer through his Instagram, and apologized for Monday’s fracas.
“I am not proud of my actions,” she wrote, according to a screen capture Johnson took of her IG chat.
The man said he is seeking counseling and urged any young people who see the video to “please leave because violence is not the answer.”
The SWA incident comes a day after a man aboard a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston allegedly tried to open a plane’s emergency exit door and then attacked a flight attendant.
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