An angry passenger on a Texas bound flight allegedly punched a flight attendant before trying to jump out of the emergency exit. The incident took place as the United Airlines flight was about to take off. The airline reportedly reacted to the incident by calling it “unacceptable” and also banning the passenger from its future flights.
The incident was captured on camera by a passenger, Naya Jimenez. She told Fox News that the man, identified as Cody Benjamin Lovins, started punching the flight attendant after getting upset with her.
It all started when Jimenez found Lovins’ wife in her assigned seat and refused to move, reports Fox News. Jimenez then sought out a flight attendant’s help who tried to convince Lovins’ wife to move to her assigned seat. At this point Lovins’ intervened and after arguing with the attendant, got angry and allegedly started hitting her.
“After he paused for a minute, he ran toward where the pilot was, where the emergency exit doors are, and attempted to open it. (He) successfully opened the emergency exit and was about to jump down,” Jimenez told ABC7. “The plane is elevated, so he would have jumped apparently two stories to the ground, and the flight attendants just kicked in, and everybody pulled him back to safety.”
Take a look at the video that shows the incident:
The video prompted people to share various reactions. “Starting to look more like public transit every day,” wrote a YouTube user. “Why are people losing control on planes?” posted another. “They were asked to move out of SOMEONE ELSE’S assigned seat and into the seats they were assigned,” commented a third.
United Airlines also shared a statement while reacting to the incident. “On Sunday night, our team at San Francisco International Airport immediately contacted law enforcement officials after a customer became disruptive during boarding. We’re grateful to our team in San Francisco for their professionalism in this situation and for looking out for the safety of our customers and their fellow United employees,” they said.
