A Frontier Airlines crew is suspended for duct-taping a belligerent passenger to his seat after he allegedly groped two flight attendants and assaulted a third.
According to a Miami-Dade Police Department report, Maxwell Berry (pictured above) was on a Frontier Airlines flight on July 31 from Philadelphia to Miami where he was already intoxicated after drinking two alcoholic beverages. The 22-year-old reportedly ordered two more drinks, using an empty cup to brush against the backside of a flight attendant, and spilled a drink on himself.
The arrest report states Berry went to the bathroom to change, but emerged “shirtless,” then allegedly wandered the aisles for 15 minutes before allegedly groping the chest of two female flight attendants. The Norwalk, Ohio native was said to then have put his shirt back on and wandered back to his seat, where he proceeded to yell profanities at other passengers, scream that his parents are worth $2 million (like Luann de Lesseps says: money can’t buy you class), and punch a male flight attendant in the face who was watching over him.
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The traveler became so irate and out of control that flight attendants decided to restrain him and duct-tape the violent man to his seat for the remainder of his flight. You can see it all go down in the cringe-worthy footage (below).
https://twitter.com/SweeneyABC/status/1422537706173775875
When the flight landed, Berry was arrested by police on three counts of battery.
Passenger Alfredo Rivera, who captured the incident on his cellphone, told local news station WPVI that Berry was starting to get “aggressive” and attacked the male flight attendant in the process.
Frontier confirmed in a statement that the incident happened on its flight, but it also made a revelation that isn’t sitting well with many on social media: the airline said the flight attendants involved will be “relieved of flying pending completion of investigation of the events.” The statement read:
“During a flight from Philadelphia to Miami on July 31, a passenger made inappropriate physical contact with a flight attendant and subsequently physically assaulted another flight attendant. As a result, the passenger needed to be restrained until the flight landed in Miami and law enforcement arrived. The flight attendants will be, as required in such circumstances, relieved of flying pending completion of investigation of the events.”
Wow.
Needless to say, many are coming to the flight attendants’ defense — including the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. AFA president Sara Nelson said in a statement that Frontier’s management should have supported the crew instead of making a “knee-jerk” decision to suspend the flight attendants, telling The Hill:
“We will be fighting this with every contractual and legal tool available, but we would hope there will be no need for that as management comes to their senses and supports the people on the frontline charged with keeping all passengers safe. As noted in our unruly passenger survey, if this is not immediately corrected, Flight Attendants may feel unsafe to come to work. Management has a legal duty to maintain a safe work environment for employees.”
What are your thoughts on this, Perezcious readers? Sound off (below).
[Image via Miami-Dade County Corrections]