Well, we’ve officially reached peak “Ohio man travels to Florida in 2021.”
Frontier passenger assaults flight attendants, gets restrained
22-year-old Maxwell Berry of Ohio has been arrested following a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Miami on Saturday, July 31, 2021. The man had allegedly consumed two drinks on the flight and then tried to order a third, at which point the issues really started (I’m guessing there may have been some pre-flight drinking going on). According to police reports:
- He assaulted a male flight attendant and inappropriately touched two female flight attendants, including grabbing their breasts
- He started yelling about how his “parents are worth more than f*cking $2 million g*oddamn dollars” (he’s going to be really sad when he gets to Miami and realizes that doesn’t impress people)
- He then started yelling in the cabin about how “you guys f*cking suck,” and about how his “grandpa is worth more than your f*cking life”
- When flight attendants asked him to calm down, he yelled “shut the f*ck up”
- When he refused to behave, flight attendants physically restrained him and duct-taped him to the seat; other passengers onboard found this satisfying and hilarious (can you blame them?), with many people filming, and the person seated behind him yelling “yo he is savage, though,” in regards to the flight attendant taping him to the seat
- Upon arrival in Miami, the man was arrested, and he has been charged with three counts of battery; presumably he could also face a significant fine as part of the FAA’s zero-tolerance policy for misbehavior
You can watch a couple of videos from the flight for yourself, though note that it has some bad language (as you may have guessed):
Frontier Airlines’ controversial statement
Following the incident, Frontier Airlines issued the following statement:
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 flight attendants will be, as required in such circumstances, relieved of flying pending completion of investigation of the events.
Suffice to say that the airline got a lot of backlash. I get that an investigation needs to be done, but it’s absolutely bizarre that the airline would suspend the crew. I don’t ever recall an airline stating that crews would be “relieved of flying” until an investigation is complete following an incident like this, where a passenger was so obviously being abusive.
Flight attendants put up with way too much nowadays, and it’s clear that this guy was acting out of line. Doing anything other than backing up the flight attendants and recognizing what they go through way too often seems unfair.
Given the backlash the airline faced, it did change its stance a bit, promising to support and pay the crew:
Frontier Airlines maintains the utmost value, respect, concern and support for all of our flight attendants, including those who were assaulted on this flight. We are supporting the needs of these team members and are working with law enforcement to fully support the prosecution of the passenger involved.
The passenger is now speaking out
As noted by View from the Wing, the passenger who is the center of this incident is now Tweeting about what happened, and it’s more or less exactly what you’d expect. Among other things, he Tweeted:
- “This will forever be the most dehumanizing experience in my entire life. Many people laughed and ridiculed me as I was mistreated by staff of a PROFESSIONAL airline. Just to make matters worth this has gone ‘viral’ on the internet and will never disappear.”
- “Safe to say I’m never flying Frontier again”
- “#JusticeForMaxwellBerry”
- “To be clear I DID NOT GROPE ANYBODY. This is just the stupid narrative that the media is pushing”
- “You wanna see how rich I am? Everybody drop your cashapp below”
- “I could buy that jank ass airline if I wanted to. F*ck out my face”
- “Can somebody tell what the hell is funny about being duct taped to an airplane seat? I was treated like livestock”
Not a single “sorry for my behavior,” but rather he’s the victim and no one is untreated as fairly as him. And while I don’t have Cashapp, I’ve gotta say, I’m tempted to get one just for this. Of course he’s not going to send anyone anything, and even if he did, it’d probably be $5. He thinks that’ll prove how rich he is? Hmmm…
His past Tweets include great insights like:
- “Using a condom and still pulling out, call that 2 factor authentication”
- “Idk who needs to hear this but 6 inches is enough”
- “never seen a hispanic woman with a fat ass ngl”
Oh my…
Bottom line
A 22-year-old from Ohio got duct-taped on a Frontier Airlines flight to Miami over his behavior. After a few drinks he assaulted flight attendants, and they ended up restraining him. It really is amazing how versatile duct tape is, from fixing engines to controlling unruly passengers. It’s truly the unsung hero of the airline industry.
Bigger picture than just this event, it’s really sad how commonplace behavior like this has become. It’s no doubt a combination of factors — a mental toll from the pandemic and being stuck inside, a polarizing divide between people, increased frustration with airlines over mask mandates, etc.
Unfortunately the FAA’s zero-tolerance policy doesn’t seem to be acting as much of a deterrent for this kind of behavior.
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