Alaska Airlines passenger attack caught on video, flight attendant helped arrest man

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant was seen on video recorded earlier this month repeatedly pounding his fist on a male passenger who allegedly was attacking a female sitting in front of him.

Flight 2221 was scheduled to travel from Oakland Airport in California to Portland, Oregon, on Feb. 1. But an unruly passenger allegedly attacked a woman sitting in front of him, according to an individual who posted video of the wild scene.

‘Let go of her hair, sir!’

The poster of the video claimed the man was “saying weird stuff and rocking back and forth” before the plane took off.

“A flight attendant was called, then [the unruly passenger] grabbed the woman’s hair in front of him and wouldn’t let go, so the flight attendant started punching him in the throat,” the video poster wrote.

The video shows the flight attendant pounding the unruly passenger with the side of his closed fist six times while another man forces the unruly passenger to let go of the female’s hair.

Another woman is heard in the video shouting, “Let go of her hair, sir!”

After he’s forced to release the woman’s hair, she gets out of her seat and heads to the aisle, and he lets out a loud scream.

The flight crew member who struck him is heard telling passengers, “I need another able-bodied male to come help me.”

The video poster said the unruly passenger “was restrained for several minutes before being arrested.”

Alaska Airlines issued a statement about the unruly passenger while praising the actions of the flight crew member.

“He appeared to be experiencing a violent medical episode that involved an ongoing physical assault against other passengers and our crew,” Alaska Airlines stated, adding that “our crew responded to this chaotic situation quickly and kept all guests safe until law enforcement could intervene.”

The unruly passenger has been banned from flying on Alaska Airlines and Horizon Airlines because of the physical assault.

The name of the suspect has not been released.

The plane returned to its gate, and the flight was canceled, the Oregonian said, citing air traffic records. The outlet added that Alameda County sheriff’s deputies responded to the incident.

Other incidents

There have been multiple unruly passenger incidents recently.

A United Airlines plane flying from San Francisco International Airport to Chicago was diverted early Monday morning due to an unruly passenger. United Airlines said the flight was diverted after “one customer became disruptive and aggressive with a flight attendant.” An alleged passenger on the flight claimed the suspect “started yelling really loudly” and made derogatory remarks about Mormons.

In an incident last week, a passenger on a Frontier Airlines plane traveling from Denver to Houston cracked a window panel mid-flight. A passenger told KTRK-TV that “the lady in front of the gentlemen asked to move seats, and right when she did, he started kicking profusely and started punching the window.”

According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, there have been 120 unruly passenger incidents so far in 2025. There were nearly 6,000 unruly passenger incidents in 2021.

In April 2022, the FAA made its zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers permanent. The policy, first introduced in January 2021, issued fines to unruly passengers instead of warning letters or counseling.

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