‘I’ll kill you!’ Drunk airline passenger charged with choking an employee
A 16-hour flight is unpleasant enough, but these unfortunate passengers had to deal with a reportedly drunk brawler to start it off, too.
An Arizona man named Corey Hour was on a flight from Narita, Japan to Los Angeles on All Nippon Airways (ANA) when another American started throwing punches, according to a video posted by Hour.
“He allegedly was contracted by the government to carry out a hit in Las Vegas,” Hour said in a tweet to someone asking if the American man had started the fight. “Then he went rogue and started fighting civilians.”
So, 10 minutes before take off a passenger starts a huge fight in his row. I get in between him and flight attendants, but he won't 1v1 me.
— Corey Hour (@CoreyHour) May 1, 2017
The man did, apparently, want to fight another passenger, though the reasons for that are unclear. The other passenger says “someone help, this guy is crazy,” as the brawler continues to come at him and threatens to kill him.
The brawler also yelled, “You think I’m crazy? What about the government!” according to Hour.
The man seemed to shout “America!” as flight attendants tried to escort him from the plane. He came back on, and as he came at the same passenger as before Hour’s video ends. Hour explained on Twitter that he got up to assist flight attendants at that point.
The video ended when I stepped in & confronted the man in the red shirt. I told him to leave and squared up with him, he backed down n left.
— Corey Hour (@CoreyHour) May 2, 2017
For the record ANA staff and passengers handled the situation with grace and respect. They did the best they could to diffuse the situation.
— Corey Hour (@CoreyHour) May 2, 2017
As of now and after speaking with the other passengers the motive for why he did this is still UNKNOWN. None of us have any idea why at all.
— Corey Hour (@CoreyHour) May 2, 2017
According to Japan Today, the man was a drunk 44-year-old American who was charged with assault after he also choked an employee of the airline and hit a woman on the grounded flight.
“Deeming him a potential safety threat, the airline decided to ask him to disembark before takeoff,” Japan Today reported. “However, the man resisted, hit a woman passenger and after leaving the plane, proceeded to choke a male airline employee, which led to his arrest.”
The flight took off about an hour and 40 minutes late, according to both Hour and Japan Today.
This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 8:58 AM with the headline "‘I’ll kill you!’ Drunk airline passenger charged with choking an employee."