Police Report Describes AA Flight Attendant as “Combative”

The American Airlines flight attendant who was removed from a flight Friday after giving a rambling speech on the plane's public-address system was combative and acting irrationally, according to a police report on the incident.

The 43-year-old flight attendant from North Richland Hills began talking while the Flight 2332 was taxiing to the runway at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, passengers said. Travelers on the plane said passengers began panicking during the speech.

According to the DFW Airport police report, the flight attendant said over the PA system that the plane was not going to take off before it crashes.

Officers were told the woman is bipolar and was not taking her medication, according to the police report.

An off-duty pilot flying in first class and the other flight attendants tried to restrain the woman. Passengers eventually assisted the flight attendants in restraining the woman as the pilot returned the plane to the gate.

According to the police report, she kicked one of the flight attendants in the abdomen. That flight attendant was also taken from the plane for treatment at a Grapevine hospital for her injuries.

The responding DFW Airport police officer said in the report that several passengers were restraining the flight attendant in the first row. Officers handcuffed her for the safety of the officer and the passengers.

According to the report, she resisted attempts to take her off the aircraft. Once she was off the plane, the continued to resist and said a co-worker was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York.

She tried to spit on a responding paramedic, but officers turned her away, the police report stated. Officers also put in leg restraints because she tried to kick the officers.

Police said it was determined that she was having a mental episode and was taken to a Dallas hospital for evaluation.

FBI agents told airport police they would not pursue charges against the flight attendant because the incident was "obviously caused by her mental episode," the police report said.