Another first after two decades of flying
I could hear the wheels of the plane coming down. That was my cue to take the earplugs off the Amjad Sabri qawwali I was enjoying and pack my stuff up to land. Moment I took my earplugs out, I could hear a lot yelling going on upfront. It appeared two male passengers were yelling at each other. One of them – a rather young gentleman – was clearly out of control. And there was a young lady trying desperately to defuse the situation. My biggest fear was it was a case of a psychiatric patient gone wrong. (Having two parents with psychiatric issues, that is often my first conclusion).
We landed smoothly and reached quickly to the gate. But you could see the person was perturbed – he just would not sit down and follow instructions. Full credit to Delta air hostesses for keeping their calm. It took us a couple of minutes after reaching the gate to get instructions to get up. At that point, I was sure it was a security issue. Very efficiently, St. Louis airport police showed up and promptly took him away without any incident. I later found out he was totally under the influence…
I took a few pictures but am posting one that does not show his face just to respect his right to privacy.
Never ever have I experienced this before…
You were listening to Quawalli and there starts the “bawali” ( just used this term after a long time )
What about the other male passenger? Did he provoke that person under the influence….Rather influential, isn’t he? Thank God the man( under influence….) did not throw up or the ( influential) man did not bring out a hooded carrot!!!
St. Louis police? And the guy was escorted out without being shot? Oh wait, white guy, makes sense…
Was in St. Louis last week – narrow miss ! I have never experienced this – once I witnessed a drunk passenger (who spent five hours in BA lounge) at Lagos denied boarding – he had even fallen down and had a bleeding arm !! It was Christmas time and the guy was begging and almost in tears – he still was not in full comprehension – security sent him back !