A JetBlue flight from New York's JFK Airport to SFO had to be diverted to Minneapolis on Sunday when an unmasked, reportedly very smelly passenger onboard became unruly, harassing and annoying other passengers.
As ABC 7 reports, multiple passengers on the flight noted the man's weird outbursts and behavior, multiple trips to the lavatory, and the fact that he came onboard with a rather pungent odor.
Flight attendants worked to deal with the situation while in the air, relocating the unruly man when he became threatening to a female passenger sitting near him. He was also seen snorting a "white substance," and a flight attendant retrieved a baggy of said substance from his seat area when he was in the lavatory at one point. And the man was also apparently poking or making a stabbing motion toward at least one other passenger.
The plane landed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Sunday afternoon before continuing on to San Francisco. The unruly man was apparently met in Minneapolis by the FBI.
Passenger Matt Kawashima posted the video below to Twitter, featuring the captain explaining the situation to the plane's passengers after the plane made its landing in Minneapolis.
Uhhh my @JetBlue flight JFK-SFO just got diverted to MSP because an anti-masker was snorting coke in the bathroom and sexually harassing another passenger... props for to the crew for dealing with this maniac. @OneMileataTime @garyleff pic.twitter.com/CABOec8P3j
— Matt Kawashima (@mattkawashima) May 16, 2021
The drug in question could be any number of things, though Kawashima refers to it above as "coke."
Another passenger, Delaney Washington, who was seated near the lavatory, tells ABC 7, "So he kept walking back and forth to the bathroom, he had no shoes on, and he smelled awful."
"When he got to his seat he started yelling that he wanted a white Porsche," said another passenger, Bob McKanzie. "I don't know who he was talking to but that's what he was saying."
Another witness, Salma Srour, tells ABC 7, "He just wanted us to sing at some point, and he smelled very strongly."
"I think everyone was very uncomfortable and he posed a flight risk and, again, kudos to the captain for keeping everyone safe and taking appropriate action," said another passenger seated near the man, to ABC 7.
The man was reportedly visibly intoxicated in the gate area at JFK before boarding, as Kawashima tells OneMileAtaTime, so perhaps something should have been done at that point. The man also was allegedly saying some racist things at that point as well.
JetBlue explained in a statement to SFGate that while the man refused to wear a mask during the flight, it was the man's unruly behavior that led to the diversion, not his violation of the mask mandate.
There is not much other information about the case, but SFGate reports via a police report that the man was listed as being a 42-year-old resident of New York.
