American Airlines planes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia – Photo: Daniel SLIM/AFP/Getty Images.
An American Airlines plane had to be diverted to the El Paso, Texas, airport on Tuesday because of a female passenger who started screaming that everyone would die and that it was time to repent.
Flight 1295 left Miami, Florida, bound for Los Angeles, California, in the morning.
However, the pilot had to make an emergency landing in the Texas city because of a disturbance in the cockpit involving a disorderly female passenger.
“Local law enforcement authorities arrived at the plane after landing, and the flight took off with the rest of the passengers,” AA spokesman Derek Walls told the Daily Beast in an email.
A passenger told the same media outlet that because it was an early flight, most passengers were working and minding their own business until the tantrum began to speak gibberish.
“All of a sudden, we heard screaming coming from the back, and a flight attendant was saying to a passenger, ‘are you in danger?’ ‘is something going on?’ ‘are you okay?’ And she said, ‘no, we’re all going to die. Repent, repent!‘”
According to the witness, who asked not to be identified, the traveler had moved to the front to use the restroom, and that’s when she started the tantrum and harassed other passengers.
Subsequently, flight personnel could subdue the woman and place her in flexible handcuffs while an off-duty police officer sat next to her to try to calm her down.
Apparently, the woman was not in her five senses or experiencing a mental breakdown at the time of the incident.
Air authorities decided to land after the woman told staff that she wanted to get off the plane.
It is unclear whether the woman was charged with any crime.