Josh Longood was sitting on what he thought would be a relaxing flight to Chicago when he began to hear commotion in the row behind him and quickly realized it would be anything but.
“So I was on the flight, just relaxing, had my headphones on, and I hear a lot of commotion coming from behind me, somebody yelling, so, I kind of take my headphones off and look around, see what’s going on,” he told NBC Chicago.
That’s when he said he heard someone in the row behind him “saying erratic things.”
Unsure of what might happen Longood, a former professional MMA fighter and jiu-jitsu black belt, said he opted to stay in his seat as others began to move from the area.
“They asked me if I wanted to move somewhere and I was like, ‘I’m fine here. I think you guys want me in this spot,'” he said.
Longood said the man was speaking aggressively, but things escalated when an employee went to grab the passenger’s bag.
“When [the employee] went pick up the bag, the guy jumped on him and was trying to choke him, punch him, but you know, I kind of saw it coming, so I was on him right away and just kind of safely restrained him, controled him, held him down, tied him up,” Longood said.
But that wasn’t the end.
The passenger eventually slipped out of his ties and was unrestrained once again, Longood said.
“I retied him, re-restrained him and all that. So once people saw that I was like in control of the situation and handling it calmly, I think everyone trusted me to deal with it and make sure everyone’s safe,” he said.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the flight made an emergency landing in Miami, and the passenger was taken into federal custody. Longood said he held the passenger down until police arrived.
So I kind of just held him there for like 20, 30 minutes and like held him down like a little kid until we got into Miami, then held him until the police officers got onboard,” he said.
A criminal complaint obtained by NBC News alleges the 51-year-old suspect had told flight attendants he wanted to get off the plane, then tried to open the rear exit door of the plane.
When a flight attendant had stopped him, he then proceeded to the front of the plane and attempted to enter the cockpit, once again being stopped by a flight attendant.
A short time later, an off-duty Frontier Airlines employee sat next to him onboard the plane, according to the criminal complaint. After an altercation, the suspect allegedly began to choke the employee before being restrained by other passengers.
Social media videos captured both the incident and its aftermath, with the suspect being restrained by passengers in his seat as the plane made its descent into Miami.
“I’m happy I was just a row ahead of him so I was close to the situation. I could control him safely without anybody getting hurt,” Longood said.
Frontier Airlines confirmed the flight then made the rest of the trip to Chicago without further incident.
“It’s a little bit of a story to tell … Hopefully my next flight’s not as crazy as that,” Longood said.
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