Passenger put in chokehold amid Super Bowl brawl on Frontier flight

Cleveland, OH, USA - July 13, 2015: In the morning, Frontier Airlines A320 (Peachy, the FOX) landing at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
By James Harrison


A video has captured an aeroplane passenger being placed in a chokehold and removed from a flight in Cleveland after an argument about the Cincinnati Bengals NFL team got heated.

According to Fox 8, the Frontier Airlines flight was set to depart for Phoenix when hardcore Super Bowl fans started to argue about the Bengals being in the championship game.

Witnesses told Fox 8 that an airline employee intervened and told one of the men he had drunk too much and asked him to exit the plane, at which point the man lunged at the employee.

The video shows the rowdy Bengals fan getting put into a headlock by another passenger while other passengers tell the man to release the passionate football supporter, which he eventually does.

As the passenger is escorted off the plane he begins swearing and claiming to be “the only Bengals fan.”

“I was a Bengals fan, I was the only Bengals fan. I’m not a bad person, bro, I drank a little too much, and one guy back there had a problem that I was drinking too much,” he said in the video.

Jason Brake, the man who recorded the video, told Fox 8 that the Bengals fan possibly did have too much to drink, but the passenger who put the fan in the chokehold did escalate the situation.

“When I watched that, I was like, ‘OK, this guy is assaulting somebody that they’re trying to remove from the plane,'” Brake told the outlet.

“The guy is not qualified to handle that situation and it could have made it worse, and you’ve got all these people that are stuck there and there’s going to be a stampede to try to get out of a little small door.”

According to Brake, the crew and captain suggested the rowdy Bengals fan brought his own alcohol onto the flight and drunk it on board.

Cleveland police were sent the video and charges against the unidentified man are pending, Fox 8 reported.

A Frontier spokesperson told Fox 8 in a statement: “As Flight 2415 scheduled from Cleveland to Phoenix on February 9 was at the gate prior to takeoff, a passenger was behaving disruptively and was asked to exit the aircraft by a gate agent.”

“The passenger became increasingly aggressive, physically assaulting the gate agent. The passenger was subsequently arrested by local enforcement and has been permanently placed on our Prevent Departure list.”

Check out the video HERE.

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