Delta passengers and crew subdue an off-duty flight attendant on a trip to Atlanta

(CNN) – An off-duty Delta Air Lines flight attendant apparently seized the intercom on an Atlanta-bound flight Friday night, sparking a fight that forced the plane to land in Oklahoma City, an airline spokesman said. .

Crew members and passengers on Delta Flight 1730 subdued the man after he assaulted two flight attendants and, according to Oklahoma City police, said he was “going to shoot down the plane.”

One passenger said other travelers described the man as strange and that he was wearing a helmet along with elbow and knee pads.

It was the second Delta flight diverted by a disruptive passenger in several days.

The crowded flight was about two hours from its destination when an announcement on the intercom advised passengers to return to their seats and prepare to put on oxygen masks, according to passenger Benjamin Curlee, 29, who was sitting in the back.

“That created quite an uproar,” Curlee told CNN on Saturday. “The people behind me were like, ‘Well that’s really bad.’ I mean that only happens when the plane crashes.

Delta flight captain asks for help from men on board

The conflicting passenger was an off-duty flight attendant, according to Eric Zeugschmidt, a spokesman for the airline. Witnesses reported that the man briefly seized the public announcement system, leading to the fight on board. No passenger or crew member was injured, the spokesperson added.

A couple of minutes after the announcement, Curlee said, the flight captain asked that “all fit men come to the front of the plane in an emergency.”

“I feared the worst,” he added. “I prayed that God would protect my family in case I was not there.”

Curlee commented that he and a passenger next to him got up from their seats to help, but they didn’t get very far.

“We got nowhere because basically all the men on the plane got up and were in the aisle,” added Curlee.

As they headed to the front of the plane, Curlee said, a flight attendant said “the situation was under control” and asked them to return to their seats.

“It was very tense, very adrenaline-fueled,” said Curlee, a media producer.

Once the plane landed, the conflicting passenger was detained and taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Oklahoma City Police Capt.Jermaine Johnson said.

Passengers had to leave the plane while bomb technicians searched and evacuated the aircraft, according to Johnson.

“Very weird and incoherent”

Curlee said other passengers later described the man as “very chaotic, very weird” and “very incoherent.”

A passenger sitting next to the man told Curlee that he was “very uncomfortable with the guy,” who asked him “a lot of very personal questions,” such as his name and spelling. The passenger told Curlee that the man wrote a note to the flight attendant accusing him of being a kidnapper.

Curlee said he was told the man was “dressed quite strangely”, wearing a helmet and with elbow and knee pads.

The plane stayed in Oklahoma City for more than three hours, according to FlightAware, and landed in Atlanta shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday.

The conflicting passenger was taken into the custody of the FBI. No criminal charges have been filed, according to Johnson. CNN contacted the FBI for more information.

Not afraid to keep flying

“I was hoping I could sleep on that flight and it wasn’t,” Curlee said. «It seems very surreal … It is a once in a lifetime event. It’s something you always have in your head, like wondering if this is going to happen. Well, today it happened. I am very grateful that it did not end badly.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has received about 2,900 reports this year of “unruly behavior by passengers,” FAA spokeswoman Maria Njoku said in a statement.

About 2,200 of those reports concerned passengers who “refused to comply with the federal mandate for face masks,” Njoko said. The FAA has identified “possible violations” in 446 cases and “has initiated enforcement actions in 42 cases,” he added.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said the agency is “strictly enforcing a zero tolerance policy towards passengers who cause a nuisance on flights or do not obey crew instructions.”

Curlee said he has “no fear to keep flying.”

“If anything … it really brings to light the need for greater awareness of the mental health crisis that many people have, especially made worse by the pandemic.”

Other Delta flights

On Thursday, Delta Flight 1131 from Los Angeles to New York was diverted to Detroit Metropolitan Airport due to a problem passenger, according to Wayne County Airport Authority spokeswoman Lisa Gass.

Gass said it appeared that the passenger “had no criminal intent” and could be “suffering from a medical problem.” The passenger was notified for disorderly conduct.

June 4, a passenger tried to break into the cabin of a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Nashville, forcing the plane to make an emergency stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to authorities. Another passenger and crew shot down the man and held him until the plane landed.

The passenger was taken into federal custody, said Stephanie Kitts of Albuquerque International Airport.

Air travel in the US returns to pre-pandemic levels

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Saturday that it screened more than 2 million passengers on Friday, the highest number since March 7, 2020.

Air travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Before the health crisis, the TSA checked between 2 and 2.5 million travelers a day.

“The increasing number of travelers demonstrates the resilience of this country and the high level of confidence in the measures to fight COVID-19,” said Acting TSA Administrator Darby LaJoye in a statement.

“The TSA is ready to provide a safe and secure screening process as part of the overall travel experience,” he added.

CNN’s Polo Sandoval, Pete Muntean and Alec Snyder contributed to this report.