Passenger Removed From Flight In Handcuffs After Assaulting Crew Member

A Denver-bound Southwest Airlines flight was temporarily delayed this week after a passenger allegedly assaulted a crew member. The airline told International Business Times that the incident, which occurred Wednesday at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, was diffused after local authorities “assumed control of the situation.”

“Shortly after pushing off a gate at Sky Harbor destined for Denver, the Pilots in command of flight 948 elected to return to the gate after a passenger failed to comply with instructions from the Crew,” the airline told IBT.

“Law enforcement officers assumed control of the situation (and investigation) as the aircraft returned to a gate,” the airline added. “The flight, with 163 Customers onboard, operated uneventfully from there and arrived in Denver 57 minutes behind schedule under the operation of the original Crew of six.”

ABC-affiliate KNXV reported Thursday that police were called to the scene after David Dutson, 58, allegedly became physical with an employee of the carrier. The specifics around the incident were not immediately clear Friday, but the airline told KNXV that Dutson didn’t follow directions from airline staff after leaving the gate.

Dutson was later handcuffed and removed from the flight, and an investigation is reportedly underway. Video of the incident obtained by KNXV shows Dutson being escorted into a police cruiser on the tarmac.

Dutson is only the most recent in a string of incidents of passengers who have been escorted off of flights as the result of disruptive or rowdy behavior. During one incident, a pilot for an Ibiza-bound flight was forced to physically leave the cockpit to reprimand several passengers for apparent intoxication prior to takeoff. In another more high-profile case, actor Jason Mitchell was recorded going on a profanity-laced tirade that ultimately resulted in him being removed from the Delta Air Lines flight.

Following an incident in November, a judge on Monday ordered a man to pay Hawaiian Airlines $97,817 for disruptive behavior after he became verbally and physically abusive midway through a New York-bound flight. According to an affidavit of the incident, the man slapped a flight attendant on the shoulder with the back of his hand, threatened to cut his girlfriend’s throat and name-called her three children “piggies.”