Man Arrested After Harassing Fellow Flight Passengers

A Florida man on an American Airlines flight was removed from the plane and arrested after he called fellow passengers blue-eyed white devils and threatened to take the plane down.

According to Daily Mail, the incident occurred on Tuesday’s American Airlines Flight 2506 from Tampa International Airport to Philadelphia.

According to WFLA, the man, identified as Shail Patel, 29, was drunk when he boarded the flight. He began antagonizing passengers, calling flight attendants names, threatening passengers, and aggressively moving through the affidavits.

Airline passenger threatens to ‘take this plane down,’ Florida cops say. He’s charged https://t.co/DniE6rDTpa

— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) March 23, 2024

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The outlet also reports that Patel was acting hostile after he boarded and began yelling and cursing at the passengers. He is also accused of slapping a passenger on the hand and face and spitting on them.

Video footage shows Patel blaming white people for making it harder for him to get to his home country. He was also yelling an antisemitic slur at a flight attendant before he was put in a headlock by a fellow passenger and removed from the aircraft.

“I’m trying to get to my home country, and you people made it harder for me to get to my home country,” he yelled at one point in the video.

According to Fox News, a flight attendant used the aircraft’s public address system to ask if any off-duty police officers were on board who could help restrain Patel. Six off-duty police officers who happened to be on board aided in restraining Patel.

However, the incident caused the flight to be delayed by 30 minutes. Patel was later arrested and charged with two counts of battery and one count of disorderly conduct. He is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail on a $2,150 bond.

A man was arrested after he threatened to "take down" a plane he had boarded at Tampa International Airport Tuesday evening, according to an affidavit. https://t.co/J0YwfSxxrk

— ABC Action News (@abcactionnews) March 22, 2024

American Airlines reacted to the incident in a statement to Fox News.

“Before the departure of American Airlines flight 2506 with service from Tampa (TPA) to Philadelphia (PHL), law enforcement was requested to the aircraft due to a disturbance in the cabin involving a disruptive customer,” the statement reads. “We thank our team for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”