Passengers, including a jiu-jitsu trainer, helped restrain the 51-year-old man until the plane landed in Miami.
WASHINGTON — A Frontier Airlines flight bound for Chicago was diverted to Miami on Sunday after a passenger tried to open an emergency exit door and allegedly choked an off-duty flight attendant.
According to court records, 51-year-old Juan Gabriel Reyes tried to open the door 45 minutes after takeoff. The plane took off from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
He reportedly said he wanted to get off the plane and put his shoulder against the pilot’s door.
Reyes was allowed to use the restroom and the flight attendant took him back to his seat, where he attempted to urinate on the bathroom floor, CNN reports.
Airline staff moved him to a new seat in the same row as an off-duty flight attendant. He then allegedly tried to grab the flight attendant’s bag from the floor and attempted to strangle the flight attendant.
Passengers, including a jiu-jitsu trainer, helped restrain Reyes until the plane landed in Miami.
“I was ready for something to happen, so I immediately restrained him, put him in the robe, laid him down, strapped him in and did what I had to do to safely restrain him and keep everyone else safe,” said jiu-jitsu trainer Josh Longgood.
“You can’t control what people are going to do and where they’re going to do it, so I think it’s better to get jiu-jitsu training,” Longgood told CNN.
The Federal Aviation Administration has received nearly 700 reports of unruly passengers this year.
Reyes was taken into custody by the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office and turned over to the FBI for questioning, CNN reported.
CNN Newsource contributed to this report.
