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A Frontier Airlines flight heading to Chicago on Sunday had to divert to Miami International Airport because a passenger choked an off-duty flight attendant shortly after he tried to open an emergency exit door and enter the cockpit, police records show.
The passenger, Juan Gabriel Reyes, 51, has been charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants and assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction, court records show. He has been appointed a federal public defender and has not yet entered a plea.
The incident came as the FAA has received 687 reports of unruly passengers this year.
Reyes, 51, became disruptive about 45 minutes after Frontier flight 3345 departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, en route to Chicago-O’Hare International Airport, saying he wanted to get off the plane and trying to open an emergency exit door, according to an arrest affidavit from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and a federal criminal complaint.
After he was prevented from opening the door, Reyes approached the cockpit and began “shoving his shoulder aggressively on the pilot’s door,” the documents say.
As a flight attendant ushered him away from the door and let him use the restroom on the way back to his seat, Reyes attempted to urinate on the bathroom floor, the affidavit says. He was escorted to a new seat, and an off-duty flight attendant volunteered to sit in his row.
The off-duty flight attendant moved his belongings and went to use the restroom, but Reyes tried to grab the man’s bag off the floor, according to the affidavit. When he asked Reyes to stop and moved to a seat across the aisle, Reyes “got on top of the victim” and “grabbed the victim by the head and choked him,” the federal complaint says.
Several passengers worked together with on-duty flight attendants to restrain Reyes with flex cuffs, which he broke out of several times, and seatbelt extenders, according to the documents.
Josh Longood of Chicago was on the flight and helped restrain Reyes.
“He was just trying to push back and fight back and try to, like, get his arms free, but I pretty much had him completely restrained,” Longood said.
Longood can be seen in the video wearing a Jiu-Jitsu t-shirt, which is fitting, because he’s an instructor.
“I knew that I could take care of it and handle it without him or anybody else getting injured,” Longood said. “I was already ready for something to happen, so I instantly, you know, restrained him, put him in his row, laid him down, tied him up with a seatbelt,” Longood said.
The flight was diverted to Miami International Airport and landed around 11:55 p.m. local time Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Reyes was taken into custody by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and turned over to the FBI for questioning, according to the documents.
The flight continued onto Chicago a few hours later, Frontier Airlines said in a statement.
Reyes has been charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants and assault within maritime and territorial jurisdiction, court records show.
CNN reached out to the US Attorney’s Office for information on whether Reyes has made a court appearance or has retained an attorney.
The FAA has received 687 reports of unruly passengers this year. On Friday, a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Minneapolis diverted to Madison, Wisconsin after a passenger made “multiple attempts to try to breach the cockpit,” air traffic control audio shows.
That passenger, who may have had a medical issue, was not charged, but increasingly, authorities are getting involved in these incidents.
“What they might have let slide before, a deescalation approach, they’re now pushing a legal response,” DePaul University Transportation Professor Joe Schwieterman.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
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