Sam Sweeney/Twitter
- A passenger on a Frontier flight was taped to his seat after assaulting flight attendants.
- The passenger groped female crew members and punched a male crew member in the face.
- He was arrested upon landing in Miami and could face stiff penalties.
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A Frontier Airlines passenger was taped to his seat after punching a male flight attendant, inappropriately touching female crewmembers, screaming obscenities, and taking his shirt off mid-flight.
According to Philadelphia's ABC affiliate, 22-year-old Maxwell Berry was arrested after traveling on a flight from Philadelphia to Miami on Saturday.
Berry, who had two drinks while on the flight, used his empty cup to touch a female flight attendant's backside. He ordered a third drink which he spilled on his shirt, then went into the plane's bathroom, emerging shirtless.
After a flight attendant helped him get a new shirt from his carry-on bag, he proceeded to walk around the plane for roughly 15 minutes before groping the chests of multiple female flight attendants. A male flight attendant then came over to Berry's seat to watch him, and Berry punched him in the face.
He was ultimately duct-taped to his seat for the remainder of the flight and was arrested after the plane landed, according to ABC.
A passenger on the flight captured video of the incident, which was posted on Twitter by ABC reporter Sam Sweeney. In the video, Berry can be heard screaming "You guys f------ suck" and claiming that his parents are worth "more than 2 million g--d--- dollars."
-Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) August 3, 2021
A spokesperson for Frontier Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but told ABC that the flight attendants involved will not be flying until the incident is fully investigated.
"During a flight from Philadelphia to Miami on July 31, a passenger made inappropriate physical contact with a flight attendant and subsequently physically assaulted another flight attendant. As a result, the passenger needed to be restrained until the flight landed in Miami and law enforcement arrived," the spokesperson told ABC. "The flight attendants will be, as required in such circumstances, relieved of flying pending completion of an investigation."
The altercation follows a similar episode last month where a female passenger was duct-taped to her seat after reportedly trying to open the door mid-flight and assaulting flight attendants. The incident took place on an American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina.
These events come amid a rise in passenger aggression on airplanes. Insider's Allana Akhtar reported in June that flight attendants were seeing "unprecedented" violence on flights, particularly over mask mandates. The Federal Aviation Administration says it has received 2,500 reports of unruly passenger behavior since January 2021 and has said that passengers who interfere with or physically assault aircraft crew could face fines of up to $35,000 and possible jail time.