A man was forcibly restrained and dragged off a flight while cuffed to a wheelchair by police after he refused to move seats.
The man reportedly became angry onboard an American Airlines service from Dallas Fort Worth to Los Angeles because he didn’t like his assigned seat.
He was booked to sit in row 36, fellow passenger John Gilbert told local TV news station WFAA, but instead moved up the aisle and took a window seat.
When the passenger allocated to the seat in question boarded and asked him to move, the man refused.
Video footage shared by Gilbert shows the man saying: “Don’t force me, don’t violate my freedom. That’s my seat. You don’t like it? Switch it.”
He adds: “If the police come right now I’m going to stay in that seat.
“I don’t give a f***.”
Later he can be seen standing up and shouting: “This is my seat. Shut up. Shut up.”
A flight attendant is heard on the video responding: “You can’t talk to anyone like that, you’re getting kicked off of this flight.”
Gilbert also filmed footage of the man being removed from the aircraft. True to his word, the man refused to move, resulting in four police officers restraining him and strapping him to a wheelchair in order to force him off the flight.
Video shows him struggling against the restraints and shouting and swearing.
The other passengers were also asked to deplane while the man was dealt with, resulting in a delay of 45 minutes.
American Airlines said in a statement: “American contacted law enforcement due to a disruptive passenger who caused a disturbance during the boarding process.”
Dallas Fort Worth airport confirmed that officers responded to the incident, but no arrest was made.
It is the latest in a spate of incidents involving disruptive plane passengers.
This week, a woman appeared in court for assaulting three other passengers, including an eight-year-old boy.
Louise Dixon, 51, had to be restrained for six hours on the Virgin Atlantic service from Miami to London Heathrow in April after throwing a full water bottle at a child’s head “with some force”.
In the US, a couple was recently removed from an American Airlines flight after the woman chased her boyfriend down the aisle and smashed a laptop computer over his head for “looking at another woman”.
