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United Airlines flight UA871 was forced to return to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) after an Economy Class passenger became unruly, refused to follow crew member instructions, and repeatedly wandered into the Polaris (Business Class) cabin. The flight was headed to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), but returned to its origin after a few hours of flying when the man would not listen and it was deemed he needed to be removed.
The flight ended up being delayed after the Boeing 777-300 needed to return, deplane the passenger, get recatered, and have a new crew take over the flight.
Matthew at Live And Let’s Fly started a FlyerTalk thread and amazingly a few members were on the flight.
User @Live4Upgrades commented:
I was in Polaris. The guy was in coach. He kept coming up to Polaris during the initial drink service. Flight attendant told him to return to his seat. He walked back but then a few moments later, he’s back up in the Business cabin. He appeared to be under the influence of something. Then the purser told the entire cabin to return to their seats. He didn’t comply. Then restrained him & returned to SFO. We are now waiting for a new crew & the plane to be refreshed.”
Come say “hi” if we go out – I’m in 9A.
Slight correction – passenger was never restrained. FA asked myself and a few other guys to help with the situation to keep an eye on the guy.
Things calmed down once he got seated – IME, crew made the right decision to return. Just hope we make it out tonight.”
United flight 871 returned to San Francisco due to a disruptive passenger. Law enforcement officials met the aircraft on arrival and removed the passenger. We expect to depart for Taipei later this evening.”
Anthony’s Take: It sounds like United handled this situation admirably. It’s good to see that they did not cancel the trip and I’m sure more details (and possibly even photos or video) will surface in the next few days. Luckily, the incident was contained and there were no more serious issues.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
This is another ridiculous story of a piece with the AA flight to Guyana last week that was turned around for even less. There are many ways to deal with disobedient passengers, but turning the plane around should be reserved for situations were safety of the crew, passengers, and aircraft are implicated — and this is certainly not that. Stuff like this just shows how Air Crews are high on their own arbitrary power.