Several passengers on American Airlines flight AA 310 from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) reportedly intervened in an altercation between a man and a woman seated next to each other in a first class cabin.

The incident details

Footage showed several passengers leaning over a man in the front row, urging him to remove his hands from the woman next to him, while a flight attendant tried to intervene. The incident was filmed by a reporter, Arjun Singh, from The Epoch Times and shared on his personal social media account on X.

One passenger checked on the woman to ensure she was okay, while the other passengers urged her to move to an empty seat. As she made her way across the aisle, the alleged aggressor yelled out that the woman had attacked him, according to the video.

Upon landing at CLT airport, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police were on the scene, entering the cabin before passengers disembarked. In response to the incident, American Airlines
posted on X, stating:

“Our first priority is the safety of the crew and our customers, and we take these matters very seriously.”

An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 at DFW

Photo: Wenjie Zheng | Shutterstock

In an emailed statement to The International Business Times, a spokesperson for American Airlines said:

“Two customers traveling together were engaged in an altercation aboard American Airlines flight 310, with service from Miami (MIA) to Charlotte (CLT) on Oct. 2. Local law enforcement responded and escorted the customers from the CLT airport.”

Unruly behavior onboard doesn’t fly

Unfortunately, stories and videos of unruly passengers have been on the rise in the last few years, putting the safety of passengers and crew at risk.

American Airlines fleet

Photo: Anand Balaji | Shutterstock

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recorded 1,607 unruly behavior incidents this year, most of which were reported in July 2024. Meanwhile, in 2023, the US civil aviation regulator received 2,075 reports of disruptive behavior onboard aircraft.

The numbers for 2023 and this year are considerably lower than those recorded in 2021 and 2022, when the world was reopening after the global COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the FAA
received 2,455 reports of unruly behavior, while in 2021, it received a staggering 5,973 reports.

The FAA has a zero-tolerance policy on unruly passenger behavior. When warranted, incidents involving unruly passengers are referred to the FBI and can result in a felony conviction. In addition, the US regulator can propose up to $37,000 per violation for unruly passenger cases or land an unruly passenger on an airline’s internal no-fly list.

It is worth noting that the FAA’s database contains only those incidents reported to the FAA. Reporting is at the discretion of the crew members.

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