A Florida man on an American Airlines flight was put in a headlock, removed from the aircraft and arrested after he called fellow passengers “blue-eyed white devils” and threatened to “take this plane down with all you motherf—ers on it.”
Shail Patel, 29, was drunk when he boarded the flight from Tampa to Philadelphia on Tuesday and began “antagonizing passengers, calling flight attendants names, threatening passengers and aggressively moving through the aircraft,” court documents show, according to WFLA.
The report stated he was acting hostile after he boarded and “began acting erratically, yelling and cursing at the passengers.”
Patel called passengers “blue-eyed white devils” and threatened to “take this plane down with all you motherf—— on it,” according to court documents. He is also accused of slapping a passenger on the hand and face and spitting on them.
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Video footage of the incident showed Patel yelling an antisemitic slur at a flight attendant before he was put in a headlock by a fellow passenger and removed from the aircraft.
“I’m trying to get to my home country and you people made it harder for me to get to my home country,” he was heard yelling at one point in the video.
A flight attendant used the aircraft’s public address system to ask if any off-duty police officers were on board who could help restrain Patel. Police said six off-duty law enforcement officers stepped in and took him off the plane.
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“Prior to departure of American Airlines flight 2506 with service from Tampa (TPA) to Philadelphia (PHL), law enforcement was requested to the aircraft due to a disturbance in the cabin involving a disruptive customer,” American Airlines said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “We thank our team for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The flight had a 30-minute delay because of the incident.
Patel was arrested on two counts of battery and one count of disorderly intoxication. He is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail on a $2,150 bond.
