Flight to LA diverted when passenger starts attacking fellow travelers with a 'waist belt'
Breeze Airways Flight MX704 broke out in chaos in the middle of its journey from Norfolk, Virginia, to the California hot spot on Wednesday.
The flight had to divert to Grand Junction Regional Airport in Colorado because of the violent outburst.
A drunken man started screaming and acting violently towards flight attendants and other travelers, the Grand Junction Police Department said in a statement.
He was allegedly 'yelling racist slurs at airline staff while waving a skateboard,' police told the outlet.
The culprit, whose name has not been publicly released, was restrained twice as the staff urgently arranged for the emergency landing and notified local police of the situation.
But he managed to break free - this time using a 'waist belt' to whack anyone trying to stop his reign of terror.
Other passengers reportedly had to hold him down until the plane landed.
Audio from Air Traffic Controllers obtained by 13 News Now indicates the belt he used to attack his fellow passengers was one of the restraints he broke out of.
'Approach said that the passenger is free and he's using what they are trying to restrain him with as a weapon,' they noted.
The operator responding on the ground responded: 'Hitting people with his own waist belt, right?'
'Belt, yes sir,' the flight employee responded. It is not immediately clear if this belt was one of his restraints or if it was one he was wearing.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the airline of comment and clarification.
When the plane finally landed, Grand Junction Police swarmed the plane to take the attacker into custody.
Footage captured by one of the terrified passengers on board the flight from hell shows the aggravated perpetrator being escorted down the aisle by police officers as he was handcuffed.
The police department said that there were no reported injuries. But the airline told NBC 4 a flight attendant and a guest were evaluated for minor injuries.
'Our focus now is on taking care of our Crew and remaining Guests who have been unfairly inconvenienced by this unfortunate event and getting them safely to their final destination as quickly as possible.'
The police department released a statement on the Wednesday incident
According to the FlightAware tracker, the flight from Grand Junction to Los Angeles was rescheduled for just after 6:15pm local time.
The trip to their destination is expected to take about an hour and a half.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Grand Junction police for comment.
The investigation is ongoing and charges will be handled by the FBI, the department said in its statement.
There have been 1,007 unruly passenger reports since the start of the year, according to the FAA.
'Incidents where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior are an ongoing problem and airlines have seen rapid growth in occurrences since 2021,' the agency wrote.
In 2021, the FAA saw a record-high number of outrageous incidents and received a staggering 5,973 reports that year.
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