Two passengers on a Sun Country flight from Tampa (TPA) to Minneapolis-St Paul Airport (MSP) have been given police citations following an onboard fight. The incident occurred on Tuesday, 27th December, with the police being called to the flight after it arrived at the gate. The pair will now be required to appear before court for disorderly conduct.
Another air rage incident
As the holiday season brings widespread delays across the US, the crew on a Sun Country Airlines were forced to call the police after a fight broke out onboard. According to Star Tribune, the police reported to Gate H4 at MSP at 17:12 on 27th December to meet the two passengers, a 42-year-old and 30-year-old man, as they deplaned.
It's unclear what caused the fight onboard, with no footage available like in many instances. Both passengers were not detained and were instead given citations In Minnesota.
A spokesperson for the airline said no passengers or crew members were hurt, and the crew contacted police to meet the two as they deplaned. Simple Flying has reached out for further details and will update the article once available.
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Delayed flights
The incident came as airlines around the US struggled with cancelation and delays. Flight SY368, which is the one where the fight occurred and operated by a 737-800, departed TPA over two hours late and landed at 16:49, originally scheduled for 15:06. With tensions running high, airlines have been trying to rebook passengers as quickly as possible to avoid further delays.
Nearly a week after Winter Storm Elliott left carriers canceling flights en-masse, some are still recovering. Southwest canceled 2,362 flights on Thursday, while second-place Frontier canceled a mere 28 according to FlightAware. The carrier's meltdown was caused by a variety of factors that we discussed a few days ago, namely it comes down to staff shortages, poor IT infrastructure, and crew management.
All of the disruptions with thousands of daily flights canceled has led to the United States Department of Transportation to open an investigation into whether delays were controllable and if the carrier has done everything in its power to help travelers. However, for the hundreds of thousands stranded across the country, this is little help.
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Sun Country's 2022
For Sun Country Airlines, 2022 brought challenges and success. The carrier saw high fuel prices force it to close some routes, such as Hawaii, and labor shortages didn't allow it to train enough staff for operations. However, despite all of this and a loss in Q2, it swung back to profit in Q3 of 2022. Taking advantage of record-high demand has allowed the carrier to launch an impressive schedule next year, with MSP seeing 13 new routes.
What do you think about this Sun Country incident? What do you make of the overall situation? Let us know what you think in the comment section.
Source: Star Tribune, FlightAware