An American Airlines flight was forced to turn around mid-way through its journey after a passenger began causing a disturbance over a wrong meal. Passengers on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Milan on Monday said that a man began causing a commotion four hours into the flight, launching himself at an air stewardess and attempting to force his way into the pilot’s cabin. “Apparently, the whole thing started because of a meal choice they didn’t get. I guess they asked for it ahead of time,” Krystie Tomlinson, a passenger on the flight, said. Tomlinson said that the passenger also wanted to sit in the exit row but was denied since he had a baby with him, and “those two things are what pushed the person over the edge.” Passenger Michael Scigliano recalled that passengers were only being told there were technical issues on the plane, “which is even scarier.” As the flight made its way back to New York, he said that “we’ve got this crazy man” in the back of a full plane “unprotected, unrestrained,” with no air marshal on board. The flight left New York at around 7 p.m. and landed back in JFK International Airport at 3 a.m., the delay lasting around the same length as the approximately eight-hour journey from New York to Milan. Scigliano said that once back on solid ground, the airline “offered us nothing.” Tomlinson added: “I asked to use the American Airlines lounge to breastfeed and change. They said you can go in if you pay $79.” After spending the night at the airport, passengers were able to take off on a new flight Tuesday, 16 hours after their original departure time. Aviation trial attorney Robert Clifford said that “we don’t know all the things that the pilot knows,” and his decision to turn back was probably what he thought was “best.” A police source told CBS News that the man was released with no charges. More than 1,800 unruly passenger incidents were recorded in 2024, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
