A wild video caught an unruly passenger being restrained and removed from a Frontier Airlines flight in Cleveland, after declaring that he “was the only Bengals fan.”
The plane was waiting to depart from Cleveland for Phoenix on Wednesday night when the man and another passenger exchanged heated words about the Cincinnati NFL team facing the LA Rams in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The incident then escalated when an airline employee stepped in and told one of the men he had had too much to drink, causing him to become more agitated, according to the outlet.
Another passenger then intervened and placed the agitated football fan in a chokehold before finally letting go, the footage shows.
As the unruly traveler finally heads for the exit, he shouts: “I was a Bengals fan, I was the only Bengals fan. I’m not a bad person, bro, I drank a little too much, and one guy back there had a problem that I was drinking too much.”
Jason Brake, the passenger who recorded the fracas, told Fox 8 that the sloshed passenger had said he was being discriminated against because he may have had too much booze.
Brake blamed the man for lunging at the employee but also said the passenger who placed him in a chokehold escalated the incident.
“When I watched that, I was like, ‘OK, this guy is assaulting somebody that they’re trying to remove him from the plane,’” he said.
“The guy is not qualified to handle that situation and it could have made it worse, and you’ve got all these people that are stuck there and there’s going to be a stampede to try to get out of a little small door,” Brake added.
“The captain and the crew did make the comment that ‘This is why you do not buy your own alcohol and drink it on board because this will happen,’ and they said basically, ‘We hope that he won’t be on any future flights with us,’” he said.
“People have to make the wise decision. I mean, alcohol and flying just really don’t mix,” Brake added.
Police reportedly are reviewing the video and charges against the unidentified man were pending.
A Frontier rep told the news outlet in a statement: “As Flight 2415 scheduled from Cleveland to Phoenix on February 9 was at the gate prior to takeoff, a passenger was behaving disruptively and was asked to exit the aircraft by a gate agent.
“The passenger became increasingly aggressive, physically assaulting the gate agent. The passenger was subsequently arrested by local enforcement and has been permanently placed on our Prevent Departure list,” the spokesperson added.
