The chaos broke out on a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Houston this week, when a man started hitting a window and several seats around him, urging other passengers to subdue him with cords and zip until the plane landed.
The race, recorded in videos and photos taken by passengers, started about 40 minutes on the 4856 flight on Tuesday night.
The plane had reached an altitude of 35,000 feet when the man broke the inner window of the window and his plastic framework, an event of air rage confirmed by the FBI spokesman on Saturday was investigated by the bureau.
So far, the man, whose name was not liberated by the authorities, was not accused of crime. It was not clear what led to his explosion.
The flight had no air commander, urging the crew to ask if someone had experience in law or the army, according to passengers on the flight.
Tanner Phillips, 34, a 6-5-pounds veteran and 240 lbs, said on Saturday that he was sitting about 20 rows away from the man.
“The first thing I heard was other people shouting for security,” Mr Phillips said.
He said his instincts were kicking quickly after the stewards requested passengers for help above the aircraft.
“I don’t know if it’s a terrorist attack,” he said. “You could hear them somewhat panic. If this outdoor window breaks, then we’re all in trouble.”
He said that another passenger gave him cords from his boots and that he had tied the human fruits.
“Everyone on the plane met so quickly and so effectively,” said Phillips, who lives in San Diego and is initially from Texas.
After learning that the man was not initially accused, Mr Phillips said he had sent Frontier Airlines an email to express his frustration and received an answer he described as an apologetic but “blasé”.
“Sorry, for your feelings, bud,” he said, describing the airline’s response. “I was like, are you joking me now?”
Eric Starcevic, a Texas heating and air conditioning technician, said on Saturday that he had no special training, but could not only sit down and watch.
He returned with his wife and 13 -year -old daughter from a ski trip to Colorado. The family sat about 10 to 15 rows away from the man.
“I heard the turmoil, the kick,” Mr Starcevic said. “Then the next thing you know is trying to hit out the window.”
Mr Starcevic said that the unruly passenger appeared to have cut his hands perforated the window, which seemed to have a crack in an inner window. In a photo taken by Mr. Starcevic, blood can be seen in the window and wall next to the human seat.
Mr Starcevic, 45, who said he and about four other men rushed to intervene, described a frantic search for anything that passengers could use to tie his hands and feet. Mr Starcevic said that he and the other men rushed for the rest of the two -hour and 16 -minute flight holding the man and kept him until they arrived at George Bush’s intercontinental airport in Houston.
Victor Senties, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department, said on Saturday that Frontier Airlines refused to exert the charges at that time against the man.
Jennifer F. de la Cruz, a Frontier spokesman, wrote in an email on Saturday that the FBI was investigating.
Connor Hagan, a spokesman for the Bureau’s Houston Field office, said the FBI is working closely with the Frontier and the Houston Police Department as part of the investigation. He noted that the FBI has a primary jurisdiction to investigate crimes carried out on aircraft.
The episode adds to a list of examples of air rage. In 2021, a passenger from Frontier Airlines attacked three stewardesses, hitting one and carving the breasts of two others, a flight from Philadelphia to Miami, urging a crew member to stick to his seat until the plane landed.
In 2024, the Federal Aviation Service stated that it had received 2,102 reports of unruly passengers from airlines, an increase of 1 % from 2023. While the volume has been leveled by its height during the Crown Pandemic, when FAA developed zero tolerance Policy for unruly passengers of airlines, the Agency said the recent increase indicates that it is still a problem.
