A man on board a JetBlue flight from New York to San Francisco allegedly touched at least one woman inappropriately, snorted a white substance and wielded a knife, forcing the plane to make an unscheduled landing.
The 42-year-old unruly passenger from Mechanicville, New York, was arrested upon landing in Minneapolis on Sunday, after reportedly yelling racial slurs and refusing to wear a mask, among other offenses.
Another passenger on the flight, Matt Kawashima, recorded a video of a JetBlue employee announcing the man’s behavior as the reason for diverting the plane. ‘
He was annoying another passenger and unwanted touching, possibly inadvertent, maybe intentional, unknown. Multiple trips to the bathroom.
The flight attendants were able to move that passenger so she felt more comfortable,’ the JetBlue worker said. ‘
After several more “put on your mask, put on your mask, put on your mask” bathroom trips, he started antagonizing other passengers and made knife gesturing, stabbing motions towards the other passenger, and there was also observed erratic behavior and snorting a white substance.’
Other passengers described the man’s other actions in more detail to ABC7.
One witness said the man’s knife was made of plastic and that he carried a bag that may have contained cocaine or meth, as well as a white feather.
Delaney Washington, who was seated near the restroom, said ‘he kept walking back and forth to the bathroom, he had no shoes on, and he smelled awful’.
Passenger Bob McKanzie said that when the man got to his seat, he began yelling that he wanted a white Porsche.
‘I don’t know who he was talking to but that’s what he was saying,’ McKanzie said.
Witnesses at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport told the TV station that police officers and FBI agents received the man.
Passengers on the flight from John F Kennedy International Airport to San Francisco International Airport arrived a couple of hours late but commended the flight crew for preventing the situation from further escalating.
mtr
