Plane diverts as passenger 'attacks people with belt and shouts racial slurs'

A flight was forced to divertafter a man allegedly began attacking others onboard with a belt and shouted racial slurs.

Breeze Airways Flight MX704 was heading to Los Angeles from Norfolk, Virginia, in the US on Wednesday when chaos suddenly broke out. A man was allegedly "yelling racist slurs at airline staff while waving a skateboard” while drunk, according to a statement from the Grand Junction Police Departmentin Colorado.

The flight, which had departed Norfolk at 9:17am on Wednesday, had to be diverted to Grand Junction Regional Airport after the disruption onboard broke out. After he shouted the alleged slurs, staff restrained the man as an emergency landing was arranged.

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But he broke free and began hitting people close by with a “waist belt”. Reports say fellow passengers had to hold him down as the plane landed.

US news outlet 13 News Now reported that audio from air traffic controllers suggests the man began hitting people with a belt he had been restrained with. “Approach said that the passenger is free and he’s using what they are trying to restrain him with as a weapon,” they said.

An operator on the ground asked if the belt was the man’s own, but the flight employee responded “belt, yes sir”. According to passengers who spoke to 6ABC, a ‘linebacker’ passenger named ‘Ray’ managed to restrain the unruly man and “sat him down in the seat like a little kid”.

Ray himself said: “My son was on there and there were other kids on there, and so I just had to sit him down. Once I heard the flight attendants say 'Can somebody help me?' I was just like, I saw black almost, and I just grabbed him and sat him down

The plane then landed, where police were waiting to take the man into custody after being called to respond at around 11:15am.

Footage from a passenger shows a handcuffed and agitated man being escorted off the plane by officers. He was taken into custody at the direction of the FBI and escorted to the Mesa County Detention Facility.

Police said no injuries were reported, but the airline said a guest and flight attendant were checked after sustaining minor injuries.

“Our focus now is on taking care of our Crew and remaining Guests who have been unfairly inconvenienced by this unfortunate event and getting them safely to their final destination as quickly as possible,” Breeze Airways said according to NBC 4.

Passenger PK Mackey was left annoyed by what happened. They told 6ABC: “Why am I here after 7:45 p.m.? I'm going to tell you why. This Tony Hawk wannabe from Outer Banks, North Carolina, with a skateboard had too many Bloody Marys this morning.”

Passengers eventually arrived in Los Angeles around eight hours after they were expected to.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.