A statement Tuesday from the Dallas-based air carrier said the incident happened Sunday aboard Flight 2530 during deplaning at Burbank Bob Hope Airport in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Los Angeles.
The fight involved three passengers aboard the Boeing 737. Southwest spokeswoman Alyssa Eliasen says police were summoned and one passenger was arrested, while another incurred minor injuries that didn't prevent further travel.There was no word on what prompted the quarrel. The Southwest statement says flight crews are trained to de-escalate conflict.
The brawl is the latest in a series of disturbances involving U.S. airliners. Problems began last month with cellphone video capturing a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight. Other horror stories from customers surfaced later involving flights on Delta and American airlines.
Then late Monday, irate passengers swarmed ticket counters at the Fort Lauderdale airport after Spirit Airlines canceled nine flights, blaming the decision on pilots' failure to show up. Some travelers started a near-riot at the Fort Lauderdale terminal as hundreds of travelers were left stranded.
Deputies arrested three people from New York in the Fort Lauderdale airport, charging them with inciting a riot, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and trespassing.
A 37-year-old man who was involved in a video-recorded brawl aboard a Southwest Airlines plane on the tarmac in Burbank was behind bars Tuesday.
A 37-year-old man who was involved in a video-recorded brawl aboard a Southwest Airlines plane on the tarmac in Burbank was behind bars Tuesday.
Airport police identified the man as Chaze Mickalo Cable of Lancaster, according to news reports.
Cable was arrested on suspicion of battery following Sunday’s brawl aboard Flight 2530, which had landed at Bob Hope Airport after traveling from Dallas. Another passenger sustained minor injuries in the fight.
Cable was jailed without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles because of a state Department of Corrections hold, according to sheriff’s inmate records. Details about the hold were not immediately available.
Video of the brawl has gone viral. It shows two men engaged in a fistfight as a female flight attendant tries to intervene.
The fight is the latest example of bad air travel behavior caught on video after a man was bloodied and dragged off a United Airlines flight last month when he refused to give up his seat to accommodate airline employees.
Other incidents — including a passenger arguing with an American Airlines flight attendant who allegedly tore a stroller from a woman carrying a baby and a near-riot at a Ft. Lauderdale airport over cancelled Spirit Airlines flights — have also been drawing online views and raising concerns about the state of air travel in the U.S.
