F-16 fighter jets escort Ghana-bound US aircraft back to Dulles airport after fight between two passengers
It is a minor annoyance familiar to air passengers: you take your seat in the cramped cabin, only to have your knees bashed when the person in front reclines his or her chair.
At worst, it usually leads to little more than an exchange of words, but the passengers on a flight from Washington DC discovered just how things can escalate, when a fist fight broke out between two men, forcing the plane to return to Dulles airport, escorted by F-16 fighter jets.
As the 144 passengers on the United Airlines jet bound for Ghana from Washington on Sunday settled in for the overnight flight tempers boiled over when one man reclined his seat into the lap of the other.
According to witnesses a fight broke out not long after the 10:44pm takeoff, forcing a flight attendant and another passenger to jump in between the men. The pilot took the decision to return to Dulles, because of fears about terrorism, it is believed.
The plane was escorted by a pair of F-16 fighter jets, and was forced to circle Dulles for 25 minutes to burn off fuel and decrease its weight – jets can take off with a full tank, but not land.
Audio transmissions, which can be heard on the Washington Post website, reveal the two US air force fighters took off from Andrews airbase at 11.03pm, just as the airliner re-entered Washington DC airspace.
On the recordings, the pilot of Flight 990 is heard telling the control tower that an assault had taken place. Asked about the passenger who had hit the person in front, the pilot replied: "The passenger is not secured at this time; the passenger has settled down, though, but an assault has taken place, but at this time he is not secured."
Police met the flight at the gate but charges were not pressed, said the Washington airports authority.
The unruly passengers are likely to have cost the airline a significant amount of money, with around $50,000 worth of fuel dumped, and delayed the flight until Monday. It is not known if the two men were aboard that flight, or more pertinently, where they were sat.