Disruptive Couple Forces Plane Back to Airport: Delta

Apparently it was over bathroom issue on flight from Minneapolis to LA
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2016 12:20 PM CST
Delta Flight Turns Back Due to Disruptive Couple: Airline
Alleged rabble-rouser Anna Koosmann as she's led off the plane.   (YouTube)

If the pilot of your plane tells you over the intercom he's going to turn the plane around if you don't sit down, it's probably best to take a seat. But per the Star Tribune, a woman flying on Delta from Minneapolis to Los Angeles on Wednesday apparently didn't take such a warning seriously, and she and a man with her were arrested after the plane swung back to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The flight crew had called ahead to cops about 20 minutes after takeoff, KTRK reports, with a Delta spokesman telling the Star Tribune the couple had "[become] aggressive and created a disruption in the cabin." The rep didn't say what allegedly set off either 35-year-old Blake Fleisig or 36-year-old Anna Koosmann, but a passenger who shot video of part of the incident says Koosmann got irritated when she was told she had to stay seated and couldn't use the bathroom just a few minutes into the flight.

The video shot by Patrick Whalen from the plane's front row shows police leading Fleisig and Koosmann down the aisle of the plane to disembark while other annoyed passengers take verbal swipes at them—until Fleisig punches another passenger, per Whalen. Cops can be seen bringing Fleisig to the floor and yelling at him to "stay down." As the two are finally led off the plane, an officer says to Koosmann, "You're already going to jail," to which she replies, "Why? For what? For what?" The two were hit with disorderly conduct charges (Koosmann also was charged with obstructing the legal process), and an airport rep tells the New York Daily News Fleisig was booked and released right at the airport, while Koosmann remained "uncooperative" and was taken to a local detention center. (Did this "known prankster" act unruly on a Delta flight?)

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