Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- A passenger on United Flight 1364 from Newark to Fort Lauderdale became belligerent after being refused more alcohol.
- Flight attendants spent about 45 minutes trying to de-escalate the situation before it turned physical.
- Retired Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and two off-duty Bergen County, New Jersey, sheriff’s deputies restrained the man with plastic flex cuffs.
- United Airlines confirmed local law enforcement met the flight in Fort Lauderdale and thanked crew and passengers for their help.
Where they differ
- Both the New York Post and Fox News rely on the same Fox News Digital interview and United statement, so there is essentially no factual disagreement between them.
- Fox News includes broader context by linking to other recent unruly-passenger incidents, such as the Frontier Airlines door-opening attempt, which the Post’s version omits.
- The Post’s account is truncated and cuts off mid-sentence on O’Hara’s biography, leaving out some detail on his post-Newark career that Fox references.
A passenger aboard United Flight 1364 from Newark to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday was restrained by fellow travelers, including retired Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and two off-duty Bergen County, New Jersey, sheriff’s deputies, after allegedly becoming belligerent when flight attendants stopped serving him alcohol. The men used plastic flex cuffs to secure the passenger back in his seat, and local law enforcement met the plane on arrival in Fort Lauderdale to take him into custody.
What led up to the confrontation?
According to O’Hara, flight attendants spent roughly 45 minutes trying to calm the passenger before things turned physical. He said the man had been cut off from alcohol service, grew increasingly agitated, repeatedly berated the crew, tried to get out of his seat, and shouted profanities and threats. O’Hara said crew members handled the situation with what he called incredible professionalism throughout the ordeal, and that they didn’t deserve the verbal abuse he says the man directed at them.
How did the passenger get restrained?
O’Hara said the man eventually stood up and lunged toward the flight attendants. At that point two passengers seated near the back of the plane grabbed him from behind while O’Hara moved in from his own seat to help. The three men worked together to bind him with plastic flex cuffs and get him back into his seat so the crew could safely take their own seats for landing. O’Hara said he only learned afterward that the two other men who helped were off-duty Bergen County sheriff’s deputies. He was traveling with his wife at the time; cellphone video of the physical struggle circulated widely online, though O’Hara noted the footage doesn’t show the nearly hour of de-escalation attempts that preceded it.
What happened once the plane landed?
United Airlines confirmed the incident, saying local law enforcement met the flight upon arrival in Fort Lauderdale to deal with the unruly passenger. The airline thanked its crew and customers for helping ensure everyone’s safety. O’Hara said he later learned from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, after the arrest, that the dispute stemmed from the crew refusing to serve the man more alcohol. The airline said the Boeing 737-900 was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members, including two pilots and four flight attendants.
Who is Brian O’Hara?
O’Hara spent 25 years in law enforcement, including leading public safety operations in Newark, New Jersey, before later serving as Minneapolis police chief and then retiring. He described the episode as putting him back into a kind of crisis-response mode he was used to from his career, this time thousands of feet in the air rather than on the street.
How is this part of a wider pattern?
Unruly passenger incidents involving alcohol, physical altercations and mid-flight restraint have become a recurring subject of airline safety coverage, with Fox News noting a separate recent case in which Frontier passengers tackled a man accused of choking an off-duty flight attendant and trying to open a plane door mid-flight. Airlines have increasingly relied on passengers and off-duty law enforcement or security personnel to help crews manage disruptive travelers when de-escalation efforts fail.
Where do the two accounts differ?
The New York Post and Fox News versions of this story are nearly identical, both drawing on the same Fox News Digital interview with O’Hara and the same United Airlines statement, so there is little substantive divergence between them. The Post’s version is a condensed retelling that trims some of Fox’s framing and cuts off before further biographical detail on O’Hara’s career, while Fox’s fuller account includes additional promotional links to other unrelated unruly-passenger stories for context.
Sources
Featured photo: Stacey Williams via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)