Pilot tackles unruly passenger, 'don’t put your hands on my flight attendant'
A pilot in the US has been forced to tackle an unruly passenger who allegedly assaulted a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines flight.
Michael Kerr, 25, was captured on mobile phone footage pushing past a flight attendant despite being told to return to his seat on a flight to North Carolina on July 21.
“I said take a seat,” the pilot can be heard telling Mr Kerr.
“I don’t want to take a seat,” Mr Kerr replies.
“I don’t care what you want to do,” the pilot says.
In vision captured by passenger Brian Colon, Mr Kerr slurs his speech and appears uneasy on his feet as he refuses to do as asked after the plane had landed.
“Why are you closing my exit?” Mr Kerr, who consumed three Jack Daniels onboard the flight, asks.
When the flight attendant refuses to move, Mr Kerr pushes past her and runs straight into the pilot who refuses to back down.
“You don’t put your hands on my flight attendant,” the pilot is heard telling Mr Kerr as he wrestles him to the ground.
“You hear me? You stay right there.”
The pilot uses a seat belt strap to tie down Mr Kerr’s legs before police could arrive.
Witnesses said Mr Kerr then yelled, spat and kicked out at officers who tried to remove him from the aircraft.
“I was scared. I felt like the flight attendant’s life was in danger,” one witness said.
“We were waiting for the jet bridge to arrive at the exit door and the man started screaming ‘let’s go’.”
Kerr appeared in court on Monday on a number of charges including assault, communicating threats and interfering with the duties of a flight crew or attendant.
The 25-year-old was released on almost $44,000 bail and banned from flying on commercial airlines until his trial.
A friend of the flight attendant has told US media the victim has been forced to undergo physiotherapy three to four times a week for neck and back pain due to the alleged attack.
