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Boston Flight Diverted Because Drunk Bro Wouldn't Stop Doing Pull-Ups

Turns out the middle of a flight is a bad time to get those gains.
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US
Plane photo by Flickr user LoadedAaron; pull-up photo via Wikimedia Commons.

There were signs American Airlines flight 2763 was going to be a shit show even before the plane took off from Phoenix on Monday: A passenger sauntered onboard with not one, but two dogs, which might be pushing it—and to make matters worse, he was apparently wasted, blatantly stumbling through the aisle on the way to his seat. But it wasn't until the plane was midair that the trip went fully off the rails.

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The Boston-bound passenger, who was allegedly already pretty drunk by the time he took his seat, crushed a few beers, slammed down some liquor, and then inexplicably just stood up in the aisle, CBS affiliate WBZ-TV reports. Apparently feeling in tune with his inner Gronk or whatever, he decided to turn the overhead compartment into his own personal pull-up bar.

“He was leaning up against where you put the bags overhead and a passenger came by and said, ‘What are you going to do, some pull-ups?'" passenger David Markoski told WBZ-TV. "And the guy actually grabbed onto it and started doing some pull-ups on the plane in front of everybody."

When he refused to stop trying to get his gains or whatever in the aisle, a flight attendant came by to tell him that, no, you're not allowed to get blasted and beef up your lats during a flight. But apparently he wasn't having it.

“He would not sit down," Markoski told WBZ-TV. "The flight attendant probably asked him about three or four times to sit down and he refused to sit down, and then he really got verbally abusive with her, starting calling her names."

Unwilling to let some belligerent tool yell at a flight attendant and show off his biceps all the way to Boston, the pilots decided to divert the flight to Kansas City. Cops escorted the guy off the plane—presumably along with his dogs, and the woman he was traveling with—but according to the FBI, he wasn't arrested, and he hasn't been charged with anything. The flight wound up leaving for Boston without him, and finally touched down at 1 AM, about 90 minutes late.

We really wish we didn't have to say this, but please, go ahead and add "using the plane as your own personal gym" to the already long list of activities you should avoid doing during a flight. And yes, that includes yoga, too.

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