An unexpected disturbance on a JetBlue flight was caused by an anti-masker seen with a controlled substance identified as cocaine, reported Newsweek via MSN. The crew had to deal with the offending individual until the plane landed in Minnesota.
According to NBC New York, after JetBlue flight 915 bound from New York City to San Francisco made a stop in Minnesota last Sunday, Mark Anthony Scerbo, of Mechanicville, New York, was charged for illegal drug possession.
NBC New York said that a clip posted on Twitter by Matt Kawashima, one of the passengers, showed a flight crew member explaining what had happened before Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) Airport Police took 42-year-old Scerbo from the flight.
The video captured the unruly passenger making menacing gestures to several co-passengers with no provocation. His behavior unsettled others on the plane. A passenger saw him snorting a white substance identified as cocaine.
One crew member mentioned that the disconcerted man even dared to touch one woman that made her uncomfortable. He added, "The flight attendants were able to relocate the passenger to make her feel more at ease, after the unruly passenger made the unwelcome advances," as reported by the Daily Beast.
When asked to wear his mask, the unruly passenger went to the bathroom several times but was seen taking drugs inside the cubicle, remarked one flight crew on board.
Another crew member said, "The four flight attendants confirmed that they were all uncomfortable as to what was going on. There is a boy up there, as well as the other passengers were getting ill at ease."
The collective action of the cabin crew got cheers when they noticed that something needed to be done to control Scerbo. "This was the closest place to go, so we made the choice as a group to come here... and that's what happened," said the narrator.
"Uhhh my @JetBlue flight JFK-SFO just got diverted to MSP because an anti-masker was snorting coke in the toilets and inappropriately touching another passenger... credit for the crew for dealing with this psychopath," Kawashima wrote alongside the video that he posted on his Twitter, cited Law and Crime.
He also posted an image of the flight diverted to Minneapolis shortly before 10 p.m. UTC (6 p.m. ET).
A JetBlue spokesperson told NBC New York that the man was removed from the flight after he "began acting erratically and aggressively toward crewmembers and other customers."
In a statement, airline spokesperson Derek Dombrowski said to WPDH, "The flight was met by police officers, the passenger was removed, and the flight continued on to San Francisco."
Once the plane touched down, MSP Airport Police promptly arrested Scerbo for the illegal drugs and other counts of felony.
According to Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman, the FBI could include additional charges for Scerbo over his alleged behavior.
