A passenger on a LOT Polish Airlines flight had to be restrained and taken into custody after trying to charge into the cockpit of a Boeing B787 aircraft.
LO 26 had just landed in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) from Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) at around 20:00 local time when the incident occurred.
Officials from JFK’s Port Authority told local media that a man started to yell and began to charge at the cockpit.
The man was restrained by flight attendants and fellow passengers, who had managed to pin him down.
A passenger from the flight was able to capture the incident on video and posted it on Twitter:
Port Authority police boarding the flight to arrest the passenger pic.twitter.com/6yzQXI5aMn
— JT Genter (@JTGenter) November 19, 2022
When the aircraft arrived at the terminal, Port Authority police boarded the plane and arrested the passenger.
An investigation is ongoing, and it is still not known what charges will be brought against the unruly passenger.
In July 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a rule that would require certain commercial aircraft in the US to install a secondary physical barrier on flight decks.
The FAA felt this was needed based on recent passenger data which found that during 2021 alone there were 5,981 reports of incidents involving unruly passengers during 2021 alone there were a total of 5,981 reports of unruly passengers.
In 2021, the Biden Administration added the secondary flight deck barrier to its priority rulemaking list. Prior to proposing the rule, the FAA worked with aircraft manufacturers, labor partners and others to gather recommendations included in the proposal.