Passengers disrupt flight shortly before takeoff from IND airport
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Passengers yelling threats shortly before takeoff Friday from Indianapolis International Airport caused a plane to return to the terminal, the airline and one passenger say.
Endeavor Flight 4494 from Indianapolis to New York’s LaGuardia Airport was interrupted while getting ready to take off at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Endeavor Air is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.
Bill Leschorn, a passenger onboard the flight says passengers were yelling and threating language was used. The plane was forced to go back to the terminal, and everyone deplaned.
“We were literally engines were powering ready to take off and they stopped,” he said.
Leschorn says he sat three rows in front of a passenger who he says refused to put her bag under her seat or in the overhead bin, and argued with the flight attendant. The uncontrollable passenger escalated the situation, then was joined by two companions who joined her. They turned their anger toward the other passengers.
“This language she was using was very threatening, threatening physical violence, and verbal assault,” Leschorn said. “I heard a father say, ‘Please keep your voice down. There are children.’”
Leschorn didn’t film inside the plane because he was afraid the women would attack him. But once off the plane, he turned on his camera. In the video that he shared with News 8, five officers handcuff a woman and her companions followed along.
A Delta spokesperson told News 8 that the plane “returned to the gate due to unruly passengers onboard.”
While the incident delayed the flight by an hour and a half, getting passenger to New York shortly before 6:30 p.m., that didn’t matter to Leschorn. He was relieved Delta’s crew took swift action. “I feel safer knowing we didn’t take off with that scenario on the plane.”
Since the beginning of this year, the Federal Aviation Authority says 624 dangerous passenger behaviors have disrupted flights.