An unruly passenger on Virgin Atlantic 141 from London to Los Angeles on Tuesday forced the flight to land early in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In a statement quoted by Fox News, a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said that “the aircraft diverted to Salt Lake City to be met by police authorities. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always our top priority and we don’t tolerate any behavior that compromises this.”
The airline also denied earlier rumors that the passenger had attempted to breach the cockpit, according to NBC News.
On Twitter, one flier thanked Virgin Atlantic staff for dealing with a “difficult passenger” on the flight.
@VirginAtlantic big shout out to the amazing crew on the vs141 today. They did a fantastic job with a very difficult passenger. Thank you for keeping us safe
— Kate (@katemiles8978) July 27, 2022
In a statement made to Salt Lake City CBS affiliate KUTV, Salt Lake City Police affirmed that “At approximately 4:30 p.m., Airport Division Police were called to respond to a Virgin Atlantic flight that was diverted into SLC due to an unruly passenger … who had been physically detained by other passengers and flight crew members.”
After an approximately four-hour detour in Salt Lake City, Virgin Atlantic 141 landed in Los Angeles, California at 7:30 p.m. local time.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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