Yet another incident involving an unruly airline passenger.
One flight attendant told investigators that Rivas first approached the front of the plane to tell a flight attendant that “people were attempting to hurt him and they followed him onto the plane.” He told the attendant one of those people was sitting in his row, so they allowed him to switch to a different seat.
Some time later, Rivas approached the cockpit again and told the flight attendant the plane wasn’t actually flying. That’s when things quickly went awry.
The flight attendant put a service cart between her and Rivas to keep some distance. He then allegedly grabbed plastic cutlery and shoved it up his sleeve, holding it “like a shank.” He even allegedly tried to smash a champagne bottle on the counter.
Rivas then tried to open the passenger door to the plane.
This is when our coffee pot hero comes into play. They struck Rivas multiple times with the coffee pot before passengers stepped into subdue him. Once Rivas was on the ground, passengers said they taped his legs and used zip ties from the flight attendants to restrain him.
Another passenger – an off-duty cop – said he punched Rivas and helped restrain him with handcuffs and duct tape.
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