A New Jersey man was arrested for attacking another passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight just before the plane landed in Florida earlier this week, authorities said.
Flight 1203 was en route Monday from Philadelphia to Miami when a fight erupted on the plane.
‘At that moment, it was, you know, the fight or flight responses kicked in.’
The victim — identified as Keanu Evans — told WSVN-TV that a passenger seated near him began uttering strange, unsettling phrases during the flight.
“He was doing some, like, dark laugh like, ‘Ha ha ha ha ha.’ And he was saying things like, ‘You, you puny mortal man, if you challenge me, it will result in your death,'” Evans told the station.
Evans reportedly said he left his seat to use the restroom — and to notify the flight crew of the bizarre behavior of the passenger, later identified as 21-year-old Ishaan Sharma of Newark, New Jersey. A flight attendant advised Evans to push the call button if the passenger continued to exhibit concerning conduct.
Evans returned to his assigned seat, but the situation reportedly escalated.
Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
“He kept threatening me with death,” Evans added to WSVN. “That’s what made me get up and press the button above me, and I just turned around, and I looked at him, and I responded to him. A lot was going on, and immediately he just got up, and he put his forehead on my forehead like he was challenging me.”
Evans explained, “You know, he’s looking at me very angrily, and we’re looking eye to eye, forehead to forehead, and then he just grabs me by the throat and just starts choking me. At that moment, it was, you know, the fight or flight responses kicked in.”
Evans noted that he was forced to defend himself because he was locked in a “tight, confined space on an aircraft.”
Another passenger recorded video of the fight between the two men; it shows the pair grappling and shoving each other into the wall of the commercial airliner.
Passengers and the flight crew told the men to stop fighting, but the melee continued. The mid-flight brawl eventually was broken up after the men were separated.
ABC News reported that Evans suffered only “superficial” injuries. However, a bloodied and battered Sharma suffered a “visible laceration to his left eyebrow which required medical assistance,” according to the affidavit ABC News obtained. Sharma’s mugshot shows him with a large shiner over his left eye.
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Sharma, transported him to Jackson West Hospital, and then to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Sharma was charged with battery and jailed on a $500 bond, according to jail records.
An attorney for Sharma claimed her client was “meditating” before the fight broke out.
“My client is from a religion where he was meditating,” defense attorney Renee Gordon said, according to the Daily Mail. “Unfortunately, the passenger behind him did not like that.”
Evans stressed that he is a “good person,” and that the video doesn’t “capture what started the whole thing.”
“It makes me feel bad because I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about who I am as a person. I’m a good person. You know, I recently got baptized,” Evans told WSVN. “The biggest drawback for me, what I wish that I could have done better was just not go back to my seat and been more adamant like, ‘Hey, keep me away from this guy.'”
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Air travel, Arrest, Crime, Fight video, Fights, Flight fight, Frontier airlines, Plane fight, Viral video, Battery charge
