Crime & Safety
Woman Dragged from Metro Detroit Aircraft Faces Charges
The passenger stubbornly refused to leave the flight after she wouldn't show her boarding pass or check her baggage, police said.
DETROIT, MI — The woman who was caught on video as she was dragged from a plane at the Metro Detroit Airport earlier this month faces multiple criminal charges after allegedly refusing to show her boarding pass to a ticket agent, Airport Police said. The video of authorities dragging her limp body from Delta Flight 2083 became an internet sensation, but little was known about what precipitated the incident until the police report was made public.
According to the report, the as-yet-unidentified 40-year-old Metro Detroit woman refused to show a ticket agent her boarding pass or check her baggage before boarding the flight bound for San Diego about 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 12. When questioned by police, she reportedly said she had swiped the boarding pass herself.
The gate agent said in a statement to the Wayne Metro Airport Police that the woman said “she was not checking her bag, and went on board the aircraft.” According to the statement, Delta officials “had no idea who she was.”
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Also, according to the police report which was obtained by The Detroit News under the Freedom of Information Act, the woman became combative with Airport Police officers Ronald Boyce and Gregory Henry after she was told Delta had revoked her flight privileges, shouted an expletive and refused to leave the plane.
An Airport Police sergeant and Delta manager also tried to get the passenger to leave the plane. When she refused, they told her that “if she had to be physically removed from the aircraft she could be placed under arrest.”
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“I don’t give a (expletive),” she reportedly said.
The passenger hasn’t been identified because she hasn’t been arraigned. She was charged with disorderly conduct, failure to obey the police and failure to leave an aircraft.
Her arraignment and pretrial hearing in 36th District Court are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Jan. 18.
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