Penn State Professor Arrested After In-Flight Rant

An associate professor at Penn State Abington was arrested over the weekend after her actions aboard a Miami-bound plane had other passengers scared for their safety.

Police in Miami arrested Karen Halnon, 52, following a rant that began halfway through her American Airlines flight from Nicaragua, NBC 6 News reported. She also lit a cigarette aboard the flight and tried to blame it on another passenger, according to video footage of the incident.

Halnon is an associate professor of sociology, according to the Penn State Abington website.

“The United States has declared war on Venezuela!,” Halnon said, according to a YouTube video shot by a fellow passenger. “Venezuela has been declared an international security threat!”

The YouTube video is titled “Crazy Woman on a Plane.”

“My great hero, Hugo Chavez, nationalized the oil supply so that the people would own the oil,” she said during the rant. “Not ExxonMobil. Tell ExxonMobil to go away.”

During the rant, which passenger Blake Goodwin said made him scared for his safety, Halnon is then seen lighting a cigarette on board the plane and blaming it on another passenger.

Halnon, who was arrested by police in Miami for disorderly conduct, was questioned by the FBI, the New York Daily News reported. She was released and flew back to Philadelphia Monday, according to reports.