Unruly passenger removed and flight attendant taken to hospital after incident on Chicago-bound flight

A United Airlines flight attendant was taken to the hospital after an incident aboard a Chicago-bound flight Sunday. The airline said a disruptive passenger had to be removed from the flight by law enforcement after landing.

Flight 476 arrived in Chicago from San Francisco Sunday. The flight attendant went to the hospital to be checked out.

“We’re grateful to our crew for handling this difficult situation with professionalism and for putting the safety of our team and our customers first,” United Airlines said in a statement.

There has been no word yet from Chicago police about what exactly happened.

Last week, several flight attendants held a news conference and passed out literature to travelers at Chicago’s Midway Airport to bring attention to harassments and abuse to flight crews often endure from passengers. They also wanted to put pressure of legislators, regulators and airline executives to take action.

It was part of of a union-led effort dubbed the “Assault Won’t Fly” campaign that seeks passage of the Protection From Abusive Passengers Act.

The federal legislation was introduced in April and calls for stiffer penalties for unruly passengers, suspension of their ability to fly and creation of a “no-fly list” that airlines would share to make sure passengers who abuse crew on one airline can’t book a flight with a different airline.

“Those passengers need to have consequences across the industry,” said King, who also serves as vice president of Transportation Workers Union Local 556, which represents 18,000 Southwest Airlines flight attendants nationwide. “They should be banned from flying on any commercial aircraft for a period of time.”

Incidents of harassment and assault toward flight attendants spiked during the pandemic. Many incidents arose from pushback on the enforcement of rules requiring face masks on airplanes. While masks are no longer required, King fears there’s no going back to normal.

“I believe it’s going to be difficult to unring the bell. There’s a standard that’s allowed unacceptable behavior to become common. There is a general lack of civility,” she said. abc7chicago.com