Cross-Country Flight Makes Emergency Landing Because Of Unruly Passenger

An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., was forced to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday (February 13) because of an unruly passenger.

One of the passengers told WDAF that the flight didn't communicate what was going on, leaving many people scared as the plane started to rapidly descend.

"A flight attendant comes to the middle of the plane where I am, yells to another flight attendant in the back to turn on the lights. At this time, the plane starts descending very rapidly. I think we reached 5,000 feet per minute," Mouaz Moustafa told the news station. "As that's happening, a lot of people don't know what's really going on. I mean, people assume, maybe something happened to the pilot, maybe we're just literally crashing. So, a lot of people, including me, honestly thought we might, this might be it."

Moustafa said that the unruly passenger tried to enter the cockpit and open one of the exit doors. That's when other passengers stepped in to help while one of the flight attendants struck the man several times with a coffee pot.

"There's a man who's trying to get into the cockpit, and afterwards, also tried to open the door to get out the plane. So, some of the passengers that were very heroic helped the flight attendant who went to the back and got the coffee pot, came up and kept, sort of, bashing him in the head," he said.

The plane landed safely, and the suspect was taken into custody. Other passengers on the aircraft were interviewed by the police and FBI before they were rebooked on another flight to Washington, D.C.