Flight forced to make emergency landing as man shouts LGBTQ+ passengers are giving him cancer
Just over an hour into the journey, the plane was forced to divert after an erratic traveller allegedly caused a disturbance onboard
By Callum Wells
A Sun Country Airlines flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Newark, New Jersey, was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday (3 October) morning after a passenger allegedly made alarming anti-LGBTQ+ claims.
The Newark-bound flight departed at 7:13 am and was due to land just before 9:45 am. But just over an hour into the journey, the plane was forced to divert to Chicago O’Hare International Airport after an erratic traveller allegedly caused a disturbance onboard.
According to witnesses, the passenger began screaming, “The plane is going down,” while ranting about the LGBTQ+ community. Passenger Seth Evans, a Minnesota native flying back to New York City, said he was seated just across the aisle from the unidentified man, who was wearing “no less than 15 face masks”, stacked one atop another.
Paranoid screams about being “radiated” by the LGBTQ+ community
Evans told The Minnesota Star Tribune that the chaos erupted the instant the plane lifted its wheels off the runway. He recalled the man abruptly jumping out of his seat between rounds of Candy Crush, suddenly erupting into loud, paranoid screams about being “radiated” by the LGBTQ+ community. Evans added that the man also claimed he was being “gang chased” and “cooked” by the community, which he alleged had been causing him cancer. At one point, the passenger even shouted, “Trump is here,” further alarming those on board.
It wasn’t until he boldly declared, “The plane is going down,” that the flight crew decided to divert the aircraft to Chicago. The aircraft, packed with passengers, sat on the runway while authorities assessed the situation.
The man in question was handcuffed and removed from the plane by Chicago police without incident. Passengers were instructed to remain seated while U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement conducted interviews to determine what had happened.
‘The passenger in question was turned over to law enforcement and removed from the aircraft” – Sun Country Airlines spokesperson
A spokesperson for Sun Country Airlines confirmed the diversion, stating: “The flight landed without incident and the passenger in question was turned over to law enforcement and removed from the aircraft. We appreciate our passengers’ patience during the interruption to their travels and the flight is continuing on to Newark this morning.”
The FBI has since taken over the investigation, as the incident falls under federal jurisdiction due to its occurrence in-flight.