This past week, another flight diverted to Hawaii for a brief but unplanned island stay. This comes right on the heels of six other Hawaii-related diversions listed below for bad behavior. All occurred recently and all flights were either to or from Hawaii or diverted to Hawaii due to geographics.
Last week’s event happened on Air Canada Flight 35 from Vancouver. The flight was initially heading to Brisbane, merely flying by Hawaii. But Hawaii, being in the middle of the longest stretch of the Pacific Ocean without diversion points, often serves as a good place to stop. And sometimes for unintended reasons.
Unruly passenger “chokes out” flight attendant; is arrested in Hawaii.
This passenger air rage event resulted in a flight attendant allegedly being “choked out.” Following the in-flight chaos, the passenger was zip-tied sideways to his seat. One passenger reported that the issues resulted from a man groping women on the plane, running through the aisle, and “lifting up their skirts.”
Another passenger reported that the flight attendants “Took a bunch of straps and strapped him sideways onto a seat in the last row by himself” while the flight diverted to Honolulu. In the video, the passenger is yelling and stating, “I am physically wronged; I can barely feel my hands.”
Authorities at Honolulu Airport boarded the plane, and the passenger was arrested.
Six more recent Hawaii unruly passenger events.
Within the last number of months, six other Hawaii flight diversions also took place due to passenger behavior.
1. In December, there was an unruly passenger event on a Southwest Hawaii flight. In that instance, an altercation between passengers resulted in the plane returning to Hawaii. Southwest said it was due to “customer behavior.” It was reported that the pilot told passengers that, “If you kids don’t stop fighting I’m gonna turn this plane around and go back to Honolulu.” And that’preciselyly what happened. It isn’t known if any passengers were arrested, but at least one was escorted off the plane.
2. Last fall, Hawaiian Airlines suffered an unruly passenger incident causing a plane to return to the gate, with the offending passenger removed and arrested. The flight was delayed. HA flight 452 was bound from Sydney to Honolulu when a passenger became disruptive. The 36-year-old California resident bought a business-class seat but was inadvertently seated in economy.
“On boarding, cabin crew directed the accused to an economy seat which caused the accused to become verbally abusive towards the staff members.” Even after being seated correctly, the passenger again became abusive towards flight attendants, one of whom put their hand on the passenger’s shoulder in a misguided attempt to comfort her. That caused further agitation, as did an incident related to a pre-flight drink being removed. In conjunction with the cabin crew, the captain felt the accused’s erratic and disorderly conduct posed a safety risk on the flight. Takeoff was aborted, and after further gate altercations with Hawaiian Airlines and the police, the passenger was arrested, went to court, and paid a fine.
3. Also, last fall, a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Honolulu never made it to Hawaii. Instead, the Boeing 777 flight turned back to San Francisco. The issue was erratic passenger behavior. One commenter stated, “Reason – vague details about a traveler who was mentally ill and his behavior was becoming erratic.” Another comment stated, “The guy boarded and tried to take an Economy Plus seat (22B) in front of me. Interestingly he had no bags and was pretty shifty. The lady assigned to that seat came and made him return to his seat 46K. 1.5 hours into the flight, he got up to the door 2 left lav. Soon there were ~4 crew around the lav, and moments later, he stumbled out and fell to the ground. The crew were inspecting the lav with their flashlights and I saw one crew with the smoke detector panel in the galley. They eventually got him buckled into 16F, and you could hear him shouting and cursing the whole way back to SFO.”
4. Last summer, another unruly passenger incident on Hawaiian Airlines occurred when a guest, en route from New York to Honolulu, tried to breach the Airbus A330 cockpit. When that plane landed in Honolulu, it was met by law enforcement. During the flight, the passenger remained restrained. They were not, however, detained by authorities.
5. Just a day before the Hawaiian attempted cockpit breach, another Hawaii diversion occurred on United Airlines. UA 33 was heading to LA from Tokyo. Instead, the 787 Dreamliner landed in Honolulu due to a disruptive passenger who became physically abusive and, as a result, was retained during the flight with zip ties. While law enforcement met the aircraft at the arrival gate, we were told that the passenger wasn’t detained. The other passengers were accommodated in Honolulu, and their flight continued to Los Angeles the following day after a mandatory crew rest period.
6. Also last summer, another Hawaiian Airlines flight diverted to HNL when an intoxicated passenger tried to punch a flight attendant. The flight turned around 4 hours into the flight to Seoul, and upon landing, the passenger was arrested in Honolulu.
Aloha Rob and Jeff!
How about the flight attendant assaulting me as I was disembarking my flight from Maui to SFO as she saw I was carrying my disposable pillow in my arm from my seat in First cabin. She yelled at me stating, “That’s ours, grabbed the pillow out of my arm while her long sharp nails cut my arm in three sections, right in front of hundreds of main cabin guests watching horrified as she did it. My arm bled through my blouse sleeve and stuck until I could get my baggage and soak my blouse off my injured arm.
I called Hawai’ian Air and spoke to several different people at corporate, who said they’d contact me in regards to the incident.
No one ever did. Ever.
The scars are a sad reminder of that flight.
Mahalo and blessings 🌺
I was on an Alaska Airlines flight to Hawaii a few months ago and was groped by a very drunk make passenger who had brought his own alcohol on the plane. When I reported the incident to the flight attendants and asked to be moved to another seat they ignored me and did absolutely nothing. After the flight I reported the incident to Alaska Airlines they did absolutely nothing, not even apologize to me. Glad this airline didn’t tolerate their female passengers being sexually abused unlike Alaska Airlines.
Why aren’t the unruly placed on the “Do not Fly” list?
If I was on that plane I woulda f***ed that dude up and respectfully allowed the employees to zip tie me to a chair too.
So sad! What kind of world are we living on? No respect for a person who is working, in this case the flight attendant? They should stop immediately the sale of all alcoholic beverages, and any unruly person should be arrested and Putin jail for one year!
People have been drinking alcohol on airplanes for many, many many years with no issues. These people need to just be put on a permanent no fly list to protect the rest of us from their BS.
Why aren’t more of these “disruptive” passengers detained and arrested?
I just don’t understand what the problem is?!
Because lawyers.
This is totally out of control. Every single unruly passenger needs to face Serious consequences for disrupting a flight. Heavy fines and Jail time should be standard procedure. It would totally make me Very upset to find out that a unruly passenger was simply let go. What the Hell. This requires serious legislation.
With this type of behavior becoming much more every day a heavy hand must be dropped on these people. Remain calm or go to jail period.
Interesting, the ad attached to this post was “Boston Brain Science”.
For the long distance carrier it is a good thing that friendly Hawaii is positioned where it is. The slap on the hand punishment is a sad joke. I’ve witnessed people shoplifting small item and were arrested on the spot. Which crime is the most serious & costly?
I would be interested in the ethnicity of these unruly passengers, as well as their names and a follow up as to what happened to them once in police custody. Were they given a lei when they deplaned?
Really? You think if one person of any particular ethnicity acts up or is mentally ill that it defines anything about that ethnicity in general??
Auwe
I would be interested to know your ethnicity?
Alcohol +/- mental illness +/- anger and entitlement = unruly behavior.
If I were king I’d ban in flight alcoholic beverages. Nothing to be done about mental illness, anger and entitlement. It’s the human condition.
ban the passengers for life on flights who act out, but let those who can have an adult beverage and act like an adult enjoy a cocktail while heading to a vacation.
Any passenger that has to be arrested because of an inflight infraction, should be prevented from flying on any and all airlines for a minimum of 1 year and has to have some sort of flag alerting the airlines of this passengers past behavior, in order to protect both the flight crew and passengers. And there is no reason why the passenger who is removed from the plane is not charged all of the additional expenses related to this incident.
For choking out an attendant, 1 year minimum in federal prison!
I would be happy with that person no longer allowed to set foot on aircraft again. This alcohol thing has got to be stopped.
It is not alcohol, many people enjoy a beverage on a plane and don’t act out. Blame the spoon, blame the gun, blame etc etc etc. How about blame the person. You obviously hate people who drink, but most can a beverage and act like a human. Those who cannot, should be on a no fly list. Don’t punish everyone for those who have mental issues.
these things are always written off as mental issues. Wrong. Not Always the case.
You are right many do enjoy a drink while on a flight without any issues. I agree blame the person. They should be banned for flying also agreed.