An American Airlines flight departing from Dayton had to return to its gate just before taking off due to a non-compliant passenger onboard. While members of Dayton Police were involved and the passenger was offloaded from the aircraft, reports suggest no charges were pressed against the passenger.

Taxi to the runway and then back to the gate

An American Airlines
flight on Tuesday that was due to depart from Dayton International Airport (DAY) taxied to the runway as it would; however, the aircraft then taxied back to the gate because a passenger onboard the aircraft was non-compliant with crew and safety instructions.

FlightAware suggests that the flight in question was AA5115, bound for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Data shows that a Bombardier CRJ900 on behalf of American’s wholly-owned regional subsidiary PSA Airlines, operated the flight under the American Eagle brand. It was scheduled to depart from its gate at DAY at 18:18, but did not leave until 18:54. However, the aircraft was not airborne until 21:38 – nearly three hours after it initially departed its gate.

Simple Flying contacted American on late Friday to determine the reason behind the lengthy ground delay. The airline said it was looking into the situation, but was unable to provide any further details.

According to reports from WHIO-TV, the passenger involved was a female passenger aged 32 who reportedly fell asleep upon boarding and thought the flight had landed at its destination after waking up. In fact, the aircraft had not left Dayton yet due to a delay. Reportedly, it was also claimed that the passenger refused to hang up her phone while the aircraft was taxiing for departure.

The flight crew decided to taxi the aircraft back to the gate because the passenger did not comply with the instruction to hang up their phone and did not put the device in flight mode.

Reports suggest that the passenger became “irate” and another passenger seated beside the woman had to be moved due to their behavior, claiming the woman was intoxicated.

Apparently, no charges were filed

Upon returning to the gate, crew members asked the passenger to deboard the aircraft, which the passenger refused to do. Reports indicate this resulted in all other passengers deplaning from the aircraft and the Dayton Police got involved shortly after that.

Members of the police were able to deplane the passenger and spoke to them to learn more about the situation. Upon learning that the passenger had missed their connection due to the delay and had to cancel their flight leg of their journey. Reports suggest that the police worked with the passengers to get them rebooked to the original destination on flights for the next day.

American Airlines CRJs parked together

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Reports indicate that despite the disruption of the flight, no charges were filed in relation to this incident.

This incident was relatively less disruptive

While a flight disruption is an inconvenience all the same, this incident was arguably not that bad when compared to the more serious incidents that have been reported due to unruly passengers or passenger non-compliance.

Incidents from just this month include an American Airlines diversion caused by a passenger vaping onboard the aircraft and a diversion of a

Frontier Airlines flight due to a passenger becoming violent onboard
, posing a threat to passengers and crew onboard the aircraft. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) indicates that in recent years, there have been various incidents related to passengers becoming unruly, of which

over 300 cases are serious enough to have the FBI involved
.

Passengers onboard aircraft

Photo: CatwalkPhotos | Shutterstock

While the number of onboard cases reported drastically increased during the time of the pandemic and peaked in 2021 with 5,973 reports, the numbers have started decreasing. However, the current number is still extremely high.

While unruly passengers can disrupt flight operations, it is more important to realize that such incidents also pose a risk to flight safety. For a possible solution to this worldwide issue, it might be worth observing the aviation market in Japan. Earlier this year, the country’s two major carriers, Japan Airlines
and All Nippon Airways
, collaborated and created a framework of rules to protect their crew members from unruly passengers and harassment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *