{"id":294302,"date":"2026-06-03T12:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294302\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:08:12","slug":"unruly-passenger-forces-frontier-flight-to-make-emergency-landing-in-miami-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294302\/","title":{"rendered":"Unruly passenger forces Frontier flight to make emergency landing in Miami \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 A former professional mixed martial arts fighter from Chicago helped subdue an unruly passenger who attempted to open a Frontier Airlines door in the middle of a flight on Sunday, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing in Miami.<\/p>\n

According to officials with Frontier Airlines, Flight 3345 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Chicago\u2019s O\u2019Hare International Airport was diverted to Miami International 45 minutes after it took off because of a disruptive passenger, WTVJ<\/a> reported. The man was later identified as Juan Gabriel Reyes, 51, of Pahokee, Florida, according to the television station.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration said the flight landed safely in South Florida at approximately 11:55 p.m. ET, WBBM<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

When the plane landed, Miami-Dade County sheriff\u2019s deputies arrested Reyes. He is accused of choking an off-duty flight attendant, trying to open an emergency exit door on the plane, trying to break into the cockpit and attempting to urinate on the floor of the plane\u2019s bathroom, according to the television station, citing a federal criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaw enforcement boarded the aircraft in Miami and removed the passenger and the flight subsequently continued on to Chicago a few hours later,\u201d Frontier Airlines said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/p>\n

Arrested: Juan Gabriel Reyes was charged with battery after the disturbance on the Frontier Airlines flight that was diverted to Miami International Airport. (Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation)<\/p>\n

Josh Longood, a former MMA fighter from Chicago, said he helped subdue Reyes until the plane landed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew he was gonna do something crazy so I restrained him and then, like, put him against the window and kinda safely controlled him so he couldn\u2019t hurt anybody,\u201d Longood told CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several passengers worked together with on-duty flight attendants to restrain Reyes with flex cuffs, CNN<\/a> reported. Reyes was able to break out of them several times, according to the cable news outlet.<\/p>\n

The FAA said that airlines have reported more than 640 unruly passenger incidents so far this year, WFLD<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

The FAA can seek civil penalties of up to $43,658 per violation against passengers who assault, threaten, intimidate or interfere with flight crews, according to the television station.<\/p>\n

According to the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation online site, Reyes was charged with battery. He remains in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami, with bail set at $20,000, online records show.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A former professional mixed martial arts fighter from Chicago helped subdue an unruly passenger who attempted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[124051,63965,51508,28656,20372,26443,6731,124052,20298,24913,696,124053,21825,74500,91282,17481,20334,36550,20577,1182,77897,20559,124054,123,125,124,10258,124055,5537,729,8848,1798,107,7982],"class_list":["post-294302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-abaco-the-kirtlands-warblerfly","tag-aeroplane","tag-airbus-a321","tag-aircraft","tag-airline","tag-airplane","tag-airport","tag-approaching","tag-arrival","tag-aviation","tag-blue","tag-blue-sky","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-fort-worth-international-airport","tag-dfw","tag-editorial","tag-flight","tag-fly","tag-frontier-airlines","tag-green","tag-jet","tag-landing","tag-livery","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-plane","tag-planespotting","tag-texas","tag-traffic","tag-transport","tag-transportation","tag-travel","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}