A United Airlines passenger attacked a man midflight, punching him repeatedly in the face until it was bloody, authorities said.
Summary: A man on a United Airlines flight attacked a sleeping passenger, punching him repeatedly until his face was bruised and bloody. The suspect, Everett Chad Nelson, claimed the victim had attacked him earlier, but a witness stated Nelson’s attack lasted about a minute and the victim did not fight back. The FAA is investigating the incident, which is one of over 1,700 unruly passenger incidents reported this year.
A rampant culture of Indignant Self-righteousness mixed with a shockingly high level of undiagnosed and/or untreated mental illness. All this leads to a sizeable population of people who wholeheartedly believe that consequences don't apply to them, and the actions that follow them.
Our healthcare system doesn't take mental health seriously so only rich people can afford therapy and even then, only a relative handful of people actually seek it out.
A day or so after I first read about this, I saw The Independent's coverage of the same story. They dug into the assailant's background and he turns out to be the leader of an Ayahuasca (plant-based shamanic psychedelic) 'church' in Florida.
They also gave further confirmation that the attack appeared to be completely unprovoked, and that there was no known relationship between the attacker and victim, nor did they even seem to know each other.
Also the victim appears to be a person who is deaf and does not speak, if I remember the article correctly.
The attack lasted a minute and the victim didn't fight back?!
You hit me once and it is on. (That's if we are on the ground)
On an air plane you hit me once and I call a flight attendant and have your ass arrested. On an airplane you hit me twice and it's on. I have a legal right to defend myself. (And yes I know you can't be arrested by a flight attendant, but the flight attendant can certainly call someone who can arrest you).
Flight crew can't arrest you, but they can restrain you until the plane lands and someone else can.
Also, they probably weren't fighting back because they were shielding themselves. I don't know if you've even been in a fight, but it's pretty hard to fight back when you're sitting down and caught sleeping.
Imagine falling asleep on a flight and then you wake up to punches to the face. Id imagine most people would just instinctively cover their face and try to protect themselves.
You'd have no fucking clue what's happening for the first few seconds and if any of the punches landed you might be dazed on top of just waking up. And I'm sure at least a couple landed because you were asleep when attacked.
Yeah and in that enclosed space, it’s not like you can take a step back to assume a defensive posture from which you can actually engage in combat. If you’re standing in the aisle you can at least get some arm movement. Sitting turn you can probably barely get a soft jab in.