WATCH: Gate Agent Gets DECKED After a Passenger Is Kicked Off a Flight
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — An unruly Southwest Airlines passenger who forced his plane to return to its gate at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Tuesday was arrested after he assaulted a gate agent, police said.
Courtney Drummond, 44, of Henderson, Nevada, was arrested after officers responded to reports of a fight in progress at the airport, Atlanta police said in a news release.
Drummond was booked into the Clayton County Jail on counts of battery, simple battery and obstructing an officer. As of Thursday, he remained in jail on $10,000 bond, according to online records.
The incident began as Drummond’s Southwest flight taxied to the runway, police said. Drummond “refused to comply with flight attendants,” police said, but did not provide further details about his behavior on the plane.
Drummond became aggressive enough that the flight crew decided to return the plane to the gate before takeoff, according to police. After he was escorted from the plane, Drummond is accused of threatening the gate agent multiple times before eventually assaulting him.
I have several thoughts.
Firstly, once this guy was handcuffed, the gate agent should have gotten one free shot on him. I am a firm believer in vigilante justice as an addendum to actual justice. There's no reason these things have to be mutually exclusive. If there's video of you getting sucker punched by a crazy person, you get to rear one back as well. That's more than fair.
But more importantly, this situation could have been avoided entirely with one simple fix: any behavior that causes a plane to turn around and go back to the gate is an automatic arrest and 72 hours in jail. Have the cops waiting on the jet bridge and haul him away. If I was on a plane that was delayed an hour because some asshole was causing a ruckus, I'd be leading the charge to have that person incarcerated forever.
For what they're charging to get on a plane these days, I'm not putting up with any of this bullshit. Lock these people up and throw away the key.
