A Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas was forced to divert to Denver on Tuesday night after two women got into a verbal altercation that escalated into a physical confrontation. The incident was captured on video by another passenger and posted on social media.
According to the video, the two women were seated in the same row and started arguing over something. The argument quickly turned into a shouting match, with one woman yelling “I’m from Philly!” and the other woman calling her a “b—-“. The flight attendants tried to calm them down, but the women continued to hurl insults and profanities at each other.
At one point, one of the women stood up and appeared to spit on the other woman, who then lunged at her and tried to hit her. The flight attendants intervened and separated them, while other passengers booed and cheered. The pilot then announced that the flight would be diverted to Denver due to a “security issue”.
The video shows the two women being escorted off the plane by the Denver police, while some passengers clapped and jeered.
Never flying Frontier airlines again pic.twitter.com/P1IE4YrKLY
— W Shakespeare (@WShakes59096266) July 12, 2023
Frontier Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement to Fox News, saying that “two passengers became involved in a verbal altercation prior to departure from Philadelphia International Airport. A decision was made to re-route the flight to Denver as our crew members reported that the passengers were not following crew instructions.”
The statement added that “upon arrival, local law enforcement removed the passengers from the aircraft. We do not tolerate unruly or disruptive behavior onboard our aircraft and we apologize to those passengers whose flight was affected by this incident.”
The Denver police said that no arrests were made and no charges were filed against the two women, who were released after being questioned. The flight resumed its journey to Las Vegas after a four-hour delay.
This is not the first time that Frontier Airlines has dealt with unruly passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reported a surge in unruly passenger incidents this year, with more than 5,000 cases since January. The FAA has proposed more than $1 million in fines against passengers who have violated federal rules or interfered with flight crews.
