Crime can happen anywhere, even at 30,000 feet in the air.
Unruly travel goers are not uncommon on flights. In 2023, there were 2,075 unruly passenger reports, 512 investigations initiated, 402 enforcement actions taken and $7.5 million fines levied, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Below are just a few of the brawls that have occurred at U.S. airports and in the sky in the last year.
There were many travel-related altercations that occurred in 2023. (iStock)
- Chicago O’Hare Airport altercation at the baggage claim
- Atlanta Spirit Airlines brawl
- Southwest Airlines commotion during travel
- Frontier Airlines fight in the sky
1. Chicago O’Hare Airport altercation at the baggage claim
In May 2023, a large fight broke out at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Footage was captured of the altercation that occurred near a baggage claim area.
“A verbal dispute while deplaning escalated in the lower level of terminal 3 when a 24-year-old female victim was punched by two offenders,” the Chicago Police Department said in a statement to Fox News Digital in May 2023.
In the video, many punches are thrown, people are tackled, and two women are seen grabbing at each other’s hair.
The two women are the focus of the video for around 20 seconds. Both of the women are on the floor ripping at one another’s hair. Four other women make their way over to them to break up the altercation. Once broken up, one of the women from the floor begins hitting two other women.
Behind the women fighting are at least four men swinging at one another and one woman working to break up the fight near the conveyor belt. Once the woman has removed someone she seemingly knows from the fight, the other three men walk away and begin fighting other patrons. One of the men is seen throwing a woman onto the ground and punching her in the face repeatedly.
The other woman from the floor is seen in the background in a second altercation where video captures her kicking a man.
Chicago O’Hare is where one of the biggest airport brawls of 2023 happened. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
There were two arrests made as a result of the brawl, 18-year-old Christopher Hampton and 20-year-old Tembra Hicks, who both faced one misdemeanor count of battery, Fox News Digital reported.
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“Safety and security are always the top priorities of the Chicago Department of Aviation,” the operator of the airport told Fox32 Chicago at the time. “We work closely with all of our federal partners present at O’Hare and Midway International Airports and the Chicago Police Department to ensure that everyone is safe when they are in our facilities.”
2. Atlanta Spirit Airlines brawl
Also in May 2023, a fight broke out at a Spirit Airlines boarding gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
During the incident, a woman who claimed to be pregnant allegedly attacked a Spirit Airlines employee, according to police documents.
Que Maria Scott faced disorderly conduct charges as a result of the incident, Fox News Digital reported.
In the police bodycam video of the airport incident, there is a commotion immediately heard as they approach the boarding gate.
Scott is heard yelling “I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant.”
“I didn’t do nothing to nobody,” Scott says after officers place her in cuffs. “You really just got me booked. It’s cool. I’m gonna remember your face in my head forever.”
The victim in this case was an airline manager named Jasmine Rhoden, who told police she decided to step in after the women attempted to fight one of the gate agents.
Many airport and plane fights, including one that happened at a Spirit Airlines boarding gate in 2023, are captured on video and circulate on social media. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
“Ms. Rhoden stated that the Ms. Q. Scott put her boarding pass in one of her pockets, pulled up her sweat pants and proceeded to attack her by swinging her arms and hitting [the victim] on the left side of her face,” the incident report stated. “[She] then stated that Ms. Q. Scott began to pull her hair at the scene and pulling her into a barrier that was at the location causing them to fall to the ground.”
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“Rhoden stated that she clearly smelled alcohol on Ms. Q. Scott, even though Ms. Q. Scott claimed to be pregnant,” the report said.
3. Southwest Airlines commotion during travel
In March 2023, a flight took off from Dallas to Phoenix. The flight quickly went from peaceful to aggressive when a man alleged that another passenger bumped into his wife, Fox News Digital reported.
A video taken by a passenger on the plane documented the incident that occurred between the two men.
The fight happened in the aisle of the plane.
“You a p—-, you a p—-,” one of the men, who was wearing a jacket and a hat, can be heard saying at the start of the video, as he and a heavily tattooed passenger hold tight grips on each other. Other passengers are seen on either side of the two men, trying to pull them apart.
“Get off of him,” a passenger is heard saying.
After what seemed to be passengers got the two men separated, the man wearing the jacket and hat reached back over the seat and threw a punch.
“Do not hit him again,” someone is heard yelling after the punch is thrown.
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In a second video of the incident, the man wearing the jacket and hat is seen telling everyone what happened and what causes the fight to ensue.
“He approached me aggressively with my family,” the man said. “I will sit down in jail for you approaching my family. I will die for my family.”
“So that’s why I beat your a–,” he continued. “No other reason.”
Fox News Digital reported that the Dallas Police Department said no one was arrested in the incident.
4. Frontier Airlines fight in the sky
In the summer of 2023, two women got into an altercation on a flight headed to Las Vegas from Philadelphia.
“Shut the f— up, b—-,” one woman repeatedly says in the dimly lit video.
A flight leaving headed to Las Vegas was forced to divert last year after an argument between female passengers. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
“Don’t f—ing touch me,” one of the women yells multiple times during the situation, seemingly to one of the flight attendants.
The woman who took the video told Fox News Digital in July 2023 that the two women who were arguing were traveling together.
One of the women was sent to a different seat by the male flight attendant, according to the woman who captured the incident, but that did not help deescalate the situation, as the swearing and yelling continued.
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The flight took a detour to Denver International Airport due to arguing between the two passengers, before continuing to their intended destination.
At the end of all the commotion, the video, which focuses on one of the two women in the altercation, shows her being escorted off the plane, yelling profanities as she exits.
Once arriving in Denver, the two female passengers were escorted from the plane by the Denver Police Department, Fox News Digital reported. The video shows passengers clapping as the unruly passengers are removed from the flight.
Ashlyn Messier is a writer for Fox News Digital.
