{"id":224602,"date":"2026-06-21T22:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224602\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T22:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:49:11","slug":"pilot-reports-passenger-bit-fellow-flyer-on-plane-approaching-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224602\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot reports passenger bit fellow flyer on plane approaching Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An unruly passenger apparently bit a fellow flyer on an American Airlines flight as it approached Philadelphia on Sunday, according to the pilot of the plane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The passenger also seemed to become generally combative, with the pilot reporting that the individual on board was &#8220;trying to fight everybody&#8221; in air traffic control audio reviewed by CBS News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t know &#8230; if he&#8217;s hallucinating or whatever, but he just bit a passenger and he&#8217;s trying to fight everybody,&#8221; the pilot is heard telling a controller in that audio recording, adding, &#8220;What a day, huh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pilot also requested that an emergency medical crew and law enforcement meet the plane upon its arrival at Philadelphia International Airport, &#8220;just as a precaution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">American Airlines said the passenger was experiencing a medical emergency, and that a medical professional on board &#8220;assisted the customer&#8221; before the flight landed. Medical personnel met the passenger, American Airlines said. The airline did not say if police were present when the plane landed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The flight, which left Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier in the morning, landed just before 10 a.m. ET, according to the tracking site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flightaware.com\/live\/flight\/AAL3046?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:FlightAware;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;FlightAware&quot;}\" class=\"link \">FlightAware<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The brief exchange between the pilot and controller ended with both of them laughing. When the controller wished the pilot a happy Father&#8217;s Day, he replied: &#8220;I&#8217;ll be sure to tell my daughters about this one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There have been a handful of incidents involving rowdy airline passengers in the last few weeks, including one in which a former professional MMA fighter took it upon himself to restrain a flyer who allegedly attempted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/chicago\/news\/frontier-flight-to-chicago-diverted-miami-passenger-tries-to-open-door-mid-flight\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:open an exit door on their Frontier Airlines plane;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;open an exit door on their Frontier Airlines plane&quot;}\" class=\"link \">open an exit door on their Frontier Airlines plane<\/a> mid-flight. The flight, originally headed to Chicago O&#8217;Hare Airport from San Juan, Puerto Rico, was diverted to Miami, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, citing a &#8220;passenger disturbance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Only a few weeks earlier, the crew of a United Airlines flight from New Jersey&#8217;s Newark Airport <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/united-airlines-flight-1551-emergency-landing\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:made an emergency landing;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;made an emergency landing&quot;}\" class=\"link \">made an emergency landing<\/a> in Washington, D.C., after a passenger allegedly tried opening a door while the plane was flying at 36,000 feet. The plane, bound for Guatemala City, landed safely in the capital, United told CBS News at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a separate instance, another United flight from Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/minnesota\/news\/united-flight-chicago-msp-wisconsin-unruly-passenger\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin,;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin,&quot;}\" class=\"link \">was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin,<\/a> after a 75-year-old man suffered what authorities and the airline described as a &#8220;mental health crisis&#8221; that created a &#8220;security concern&#8221; on board. The FBI told CBS News that federal officers had opened an investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unruly passenger apparently bit a fellow flyer on an American Airlines flight as it approached Philadelphia on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25831,69,71,1013,70,97540],"class_list":["post-224602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-american-airlines","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-international-airport","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-unruly-passenger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}