A Southwest Airlines plane is prepared to push back from the gate as another taxis toward a gate at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport on Aug. 11, 2023, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (Smiley N. Pool/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — A fight that broke out mid-air on a Southwest Airlines flight to Hawaii is raising alarms about bad behavior on airplanes.
Two passengers had an altercation onboard Southwest Flight 1288 from Oakland to Lihue, according to Hawaii News Now. A passenger told the Hawaii news station that the two men were detained after the flight. Not too long after, the Department of Transportation reiterated its stance on unruly passengers on social media.
In videos posted on social media, two passengers can be seen raising their fists at each other and punching in the aisle while a flight attendant and other passengers try to stop the fight.
The flight landed at its destination on Monday at the scheduled time, despite the altercation.
“Our reports indicate that two customers became disruptive onboard flight 1288 on Feb. 12 from Oakland to Lihue,” a Southwest spokesman said in an email. “We commend our crew and customers for their professionalism in defusing this situation. Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of our customers and employees. The flight landed safely at its scheduled destination and local authorities met the aircraft upon arrival.”
Southwest deferred any additional comments to law enforcement.
Passengers engage in fights on aircraft multiple times in a year. During the pandemic, transportation officials saw a spike in unruly passenger cases into 2021, as pandemic restrictions loosened and more people began flying.
Some of the cases are very serious and lead to crew members or other passengers getting hurt.
This month, a man was sentenced to six months in prison for assaulting a Southwest flight attendant in Austin back in 2022.
In January, another passenger allegedly assaulted an American Airlines flight attendant, forcing pilots to divert the flight and then later kicking a police officer in the groin, court documents show.
Others can be silly or attract internet attention but still comes with consequences.
There’s the woman who went viral in November for pulling her pants down on a Philadelphia-bound Frontier Airlines flight out of Orlando.
But most notably and recent was a Dallas woman who went viral for an altercation with another passenger and demanded to get off an American Airlines flight in July. She was later banned from the Fort Worth-based airline.
The Federal Aviation Administration can fine passengers up to $37,000 per violation for unruly passenger cases. Last year, there were 2,031 reports of unruly passengers in the U.S. As of Feb. 11, the FAA has received 206 reports of unruly passengers.
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