Passenger Cited After Hitting Frontier Airlines Flight Attendant With Intercom Phone

CNN
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A passenger who was asked to leave a Frontier Airlines flight departing from Denver was later cited for hitting an airline employee with an intercom, according to the airline and police.

While Frontier Airlines Flight 708 was awaiting an early Sunday departure to Tampa from Denver International Airport, the airline’s main hub, the female passenger “became belligerent on board and was asked to deplane,” the statement said. “On her way out, she took an intercom phone and hit a flight attendant with it.”

In a statement to CNN, the Denver Police Department said the passenger was cited for assault in connection with the incident.

The flight departed for Tampa around 5:30 a.m. local time after the woman was removed from the plane, according to Frontier. The plane left Denver nearly four hours late, according to FlightAware tracking data.

According to police, the passenger was able to book another flight home after being released.

It is not clear what behavior led to the passenger being asked to leave the plane in the first place.

Denver International Airport told CNN in an email Sunday that it “unfortunately” does not “have information about the flight.”

In November, a Frontier Airlines flight from Cincinnati made an emergency landing in Atlanta after a passenger, who was later arrested, was seen with a box cutter, an airline spokesman said.

The passenger had another box cutter in his carry-on, the Transportation Security Administration told CNN at the time.

The Federal Aviation Authority has received reports of at least 670 unruly passengers in 2023 per May 14, US Transportation Agency statistics showed.

There were 2,455 unruly passengers reported in 2022, according to the FAA.