All Nippon Airways passengers trying to fly from Tokyo, Japan, to Los Angeles were delayed on Monday due to a brawl between two men.
Attendants on ANA Flight NH6 at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport were more like boxing referees when fists started flying before takeoff. The whole exchange was caught on video by an Arizona-based photographer named Corey Hour.
“16 interviews down before 12 noon. Today has been crazy. CNN, ABC, FOX, BBC, CBS every single news station world wide has reached out,” Mr. Hour tweeted Tuesday after his 11-hour flight landed.
Mr. Hour told CNN that although the flight was delayed for 90 minutes due to the melee, ANA employees responded with grace under pressure.
“The airline staff did what they could to defuse the situation, and they reacted appropriately,” Mr. Hour told the network. “There were children everywhere, you can hear in the video them crying. […] I was the one who stepped in. He backed down. I squared up with him and he wouldn’t confront me.”
Both troublesome passengers remain unidentified, although a Narita airport police official told CNN that one of them was “drunk” during the arrest.
“No one provoked [the drunk man],” Mr. Hour told CNN. “He was cool up until a few minutes before he started hitting the guy. He started verbally abusing and intimidating people. Nothing triggered him. It just happened.”
Video captures fistfight on Los Angeles-bound flight after a passenger became enraged and began throwing punches https://t.co/23fbE86RiO pic.twitter.com/ia73YwDR60
— CNN (@CNN) May 2, 2017
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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