Passenger fight forces plane to land 700 miles from destination

A Frontier airlines flight bound for Las Vegas was forced to divert to Denver after a brawl between two passengers.

Flight 2143 had departed Philadelphia but was forced to land 700 miles from its planned destination as the two passengers were escorted off the aircraft.

Footage taken by fellow passengers shows the two women involved screaming at each other – and other passengers – in a series of threatening, expletive-filled rants. Other passengers can be heard voicing their discontent, repeatedly telling the women to “shut up”.

It’s unclear what started the fight between the pair, who appeared to be travelling together. The women began loudly arguing with each other, and one of them was even moved to a different part of the aircraft by a flight attendant.

The verbal barrage continued even after they had been moved, with one women seemingly hitting a male passenger on or near the head as she made her way to the toilets.

The woman who filmed the video told KSNT that “it was fairly disruptive, so passengers began to tell them to shut up because their behavior was escalating.” 

The women are both restrained by members of the cabin crew before the video ends, though other videos online show the woman in the red tank top becoming aggressive with other passengers, especially when she realises she’s being filmed.

Upon arriving in Denver, the two women were escorted off the plane and other passengers also briefly left to give statements to police. The flight eventually landed in Las Vegas around an hour after its scheduled arrival time.

The person who filmed the clip praised the flight’s cabin crew and their handling of the situation, saying that “luckily the Vegas-based Frontier crew was great”.

The Independent has contacted Frontier Airlines for comment.

There have been other incidents of disruptive behaviour on flights in recent months. At the start of July, a man had to be tackled and restrained by other passengers on board a Ryanair flight after he tried to open the door moments before take-off.

And last month, drunk passengers on board a plane heading to Turkey from the UK forced the flight to abandon its route and land in Greece.