With unruly passenger incidents at an all-time high, a fight broke out between two passengers on a Sunday flight from New Orleans to Austin, according to a television news report.
A video sent to KXAN in Austin shows two men swinging at each other on an American Airlines flight as other passengers try to pull them off of each other or keep them away from seated passengers.
People can be heard screaming “stop” while the two men wrestle down the cramped aisle. One of the men appears to be wearing a mask, while the other is not.
A passenger told the news station the incident started “over a seat that couldn’t unrecline.” A statement from American didn’t elaborate on the cause of the fight, but said “law enforcement was requested.”
The two men were reportedly detained, and the flight landed in Austin at 4:30 p.m.
The American Airlines flight isn’t the first out of New Orleans this year to have an issue with a passenger. Late last month, a woman was hauled off another American Airlines flight from New Orleans to Dallas because she refused to wear a mask.
According to a report from the Associated Press, nearly one in five flight attendants said they have seen physical altercations involving passengers this year, most commonly due to refusal of following federal mask mandates.
Alcohol and flight delays have also caused issues, a survey from the Association of Flight Attendants said. Cops from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Police Department responded to the scene after the plane landed .
For an “altercation between passengers” on American Eagle Flight 4698 operated by Republic Airways, a spokesman for American Airlines told The Post in a statement.
The airline’s statement did not indicate what allegedly sparked the dispute, but a passenger said the spat started “over a seat that couldn’t unrecline,”
One witness told CBS Austin two men had started harassing each other over the stuck seat as the plane neared its destination.
“When the plane finally landed in Austin and the seatbelt sign was turned off, both men jumped up and physically started fighting each other,” one passenger told the station.
The men were escorted off the plane and detained, although it’s unclear if either was arrested, CBS Austin reported.
A spokesman for American Airlines referred additional inquiries to law enforcement. Police in Austin told The Post Monday that cops responded to the airport, but made no arrests in connection to the incident.