SALT LAKE CITY — A man was arrested upon a flight's landing at the Salt Lake City International Airport after berating the crew and fellow passengers, according to witnesses.
The incident happened Monday on American Airlines flight 1802 from Los Angeles to SLC.
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According to Dennis Busch, who witnessed the incident, the man yelled at a woman of Asian ethnicity, telling her to sit down while she was standing up "to deal with a back issue."
He then told flight attendants that the woman and the person she was with “didn’t belong here,” Busch wrote in an Instagram post.
Videos posted by Busch show the man standing up and shouting at flight crew members and being told to sit down repeatedly. Once the plane landed, three Salt Lake City Police officers came on board and took him into custody.
"After asking him to calm down the man went into a complete meltdown of racist, sexist and belligerent comments, culminating in his arrest at the gate," Busch wrote. "We were lucky to have such a well trained crew who kept their cool throughout the flight!"
A spokesperson for the SLC airport confirmed to FOX 13 that an unruly passenger was arrested after the flight landed. They later provided an update that the man was taken to a hospital to be checked out and was then cited.
Police later identified the man as 61-year-old Timothy Armstrong of Las Vegas. Armstrong was cited for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
American Airlines also confirmed that Armstrong was removed by police.
"We thank our crew for their professionalism and our customers for their understanding," a company spokesperson added in the statement.
