Punches thrown on Southwest plane in Dallas, according to witness and video
By Sharif Paget and Andy Rose, CNN
Punches were thrown on a Southwest Airlines plane in Dallas Monday, according to a witness and video, marking the latest incident of unruly passenger behavior.
Passengers bound for Phoenix were boarding Flight 117 at Dallas Love Field Airport when a man in a tan blazer confronted another man and hit him with a flurry of punches, passenger Caitlin Johnson told CNN Wednesday.
“And the next thing you know he starts punching the man,” Johnson said.
She said passengers jumped in to help de-escalate the situation.
In Johnson’s video, the man in the blazer can be seen holding the other man in a headlock and calling him obscenities as passengers try to intervene.
“You guys stop it,” one passenger is heard saying, while another says, “Get off of him” and “let go.”
Once the passengers managed to separate the two men, the man wearing the blazer swings at the other man, the video shows.
“No! Do not hit him again,” a passenger is heard saying.
After the altercation, video shows the man in the blazer telling passengers that the person he attacked approached his family aggressively. “Tell them what you did,” the man in the blazer says in the video. “I will sit down in jail for you approaching my family.”
Johnson says both men eventually left the plane before takeoff.
Southwest Airlines acknowledged the incident in a statement.
“We commend our Crew for managing the situation as safety professionals while also ensuring the comfort of the other passengers in the cabin,” the airline said in a statement sent to CNN. “We don’t have further details to share, except that the flight arrived on time and as scheduled.”
The Dallas Police Department told CNN in a statement Wednesday that it responded after the incident and no arrest was made.
Travel disruptions abound in 2023
Unruly passengers continue to be an issue on flights around the country, adding to a host of travel disruptions in recent days ranging from bird strikes, aircraft striking each other on the ground and episodes of severe turbulence.
On Monday, a Massachusetts man was arrested for allegedly attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon three times during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston, after attempting to open an emergency exit door, according to the Justice Department.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, faces one charge of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon.
Torres was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport Monday and will remain detained pending a hearing set for Thursday.
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CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
