Awful: American Flight Attendant Grabbed By Collar, Dragged Down Aisle

Unfortunately we see violence in the skies all too often. However, this situation is especially egregious, as a passenger seemingly attacked a flight attendant unprovoked, and became incredibly violent, as flagged by PYOK.

Passenger assaults flight attendant, prompting diversion

This incident happened on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, on American Eagle flight AA3359, scheduled to operate from Hartford (BDL) to Chicago (ORD).

The flight was operated by Envoy Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of American, on an Embraer E170 with the registration code N268NN. The flight was running over four hours behind schedule — it was initially supposed to depart at 5:01PM, but ended up taking off at 9:35PM.

According to the criminal complaint that was filed:

• The flight attendant was seated in the back row of the plane (perhaps jump seat?)
• Somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes after takeoff, a passenger seated several rows in front of the flight attendant stood up, began to take off his shirt, then ran to the back of the plane yelling “help me”
• The passenger then grabbed the flight attendant by the shirt collar, shouted “you’re coming with me,” and forcefully brought the victim to the ground
• The passenger then attempted to drag the flight attendant up the aisle, and refused to comply with repeated flight crew instructions to cease his actions, and he held the flight attendant to the ground
• Other passengers stepped in to restrain the attacker, and return him to his seat
• However, the passenger continued to act in an erratic manner, grabbing and holding onto the arm of another passenger, and making incoherent statements

As you’d expect, an emergency was declared, and the plane ended up landing back in Hartford at 10:45PM, 70 minutes after it departed. Once on the ground, the attacker, 24-year-old Julius Jordan Priester, was initially taken to a hospital for evaluation, prior to being sent to jail.

Priester has a history of violence and use of weapons, as well as a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and violations of probation and parole.

The traveler has now been charged with interference with flight crew members, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and/or a fine of up to $250,000. An American spokesperson has issued the following statement:

“On May 27, American Eagle flight 3359, operated by Envoy, with service from Hartford (BDL) to Chicago (ORD), returned to BDL due to a disruptive customer. We do not tolerate violence, and we thank our team members for their professionalism and our customers for their assistance.”

This kind of passenger behavior is sickening

The uptick in violence toward flight attendants in recent years has been sickening. Look, in general I’m sympathetic to some people having mental issues that cause them to act erratically. However, this person has a history of violence and drug abuse, so there needs to be some level of accountability here.

How horrifying for a passenger to just pop up and start attacking a flight attendant out of nowhere. No one deserves that.

Bottom line

A flight attendant on an American Eagle flight was attacked by a passenger, grabbed by the collar, dragged down the aisle, and held down. No one should be subjected to that kind of violence, let alone a flight attendant simply doing their job. I hope this guy gets both the help he needs and punishment be deserves, to prevent this from happening again in the future.

What do you make of this inflight incident?