An American Airlines passenger yelled antisemitic slurs at a flight attendant and then had a scuffle with a fellow passenger. He called fellow passengers “blue-eyed white devils” and threatened to “take this plane down with all you motherf***ers on it.”
29-year-old Shail Patel was drunk when he boarded an American Airlines flight flying from Tampa to Philadelphia on Tuesday. According to court documents, he started “antagonizing passengers, calling flight attendants names, threatening passengers and aggressively moving through the aircraft.”
A flight attendant asked, using the aircraft’s public address system if any off-duty police officers on board could help restrain Patel. Fortunately, six off-duty police officers stepped in and took Patel off the plane.
In a video, he was saying “I’m trying to get to my home country and you people made it harder for me to get to my home country.”
Antisemitic Slurs and Assaulted a Passenger
Patel was in a heated argument with fellow passengers and the flight crew. He then claimed that the passengers were “teaming up” against him, while the flight attendant asked him to board off the flight.
After throwing racist insults at the flight attendant, the situation further escalated when another passenger confronted him and things turned physical. The video depicts another passenger putting Patel in a headlock. The passenger was heard on video saying “Now put your hands down and don’t touch anybody.”
A woman then approached the two and announced “I’m a police officer.” The other passenger then said, “So am I.”
American Airlines said in a statement, “Prior to departure of American Airlines flight 2506 with service from Tampa (TPA) to Philadelphia (PHL), law enforcement was requested to the aircraft due to a disturbance in the cabin involving a disruptive customer.” It added, “We thank our team for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The flight was delayed 30 minutes because of the incident.
Patel was charged with two counts of battery and one count of disorderly intoxication. He was detained at the Hillsborough County Jail.
