DELTA FORCE

Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Brawling Passenger Tries to Open Door

Pilot warned air traffic control that male passenger was “in a fight with our flight attendant right now, trying to open the emergency exit.”

A Delta Connection flight saw a midair meltdown Thursday night when a passenger reportedly tried to wrench open the emergency exit door and squared off with a flight attendant. Flight 3612, operated by SkyWest, was flying from Omaha to Detroit when the incident broke out around 7 p.m., forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The passenger was “in a fight with our flight attendant right now, trying to open the emergency exit,” a pilot told air traffic control over the radio, according to audio posted by LiveATC.net. The man didn’t get the door opened and video from inside the aircraft shared on social media showed police officers escorting him off the aircraft, his hands zip-tied behind his back. The plane landed in Detroit two hours late. “SkyWest has zero tolerance for unruly behavior,” the airline said in a statement, calling passenger and crew safety their “top priority.” This incident adds to an already wild year in the skies over the U.S., with the Federal Aviation Administration logging more than 870 reports of unruly passengers so far in 2025.