One unruly passenger’s behavior rapidly spiraled aboard United Airlines flight 858 bound to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and the flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) on June 26. The Boeing 777-300 was carrying 285 passengers as well as 16 crew when it left Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) earlier that day at 12:43, according to Flightradar24.

Despite air marshals warning the flyer to avoid diverting, the aircraft was forced down after just two hours, landing around 4:37 PM in Japan. Seven officers from the Chiba Prefectural Police responded when the plane touched down to escort the traveler, who alternated between accusations of being “oppressed” and speaking aggressively in Chinese.

An Expensive Way To Delay United Flight 858

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Diverting shortly after takeoff for a transoceanic flight meant that the ‘triple seven’ was forced to dump over $30,000 worth of fuel to land. Witness accounts stated that the passenger was accusing staff of “oppressing” her, and when one of the lead cabin crew members attempted to tap her shoulder for attention, the traveler reflexively elbowed the flight attendant. During meal service, she reportedly threw food packaging onto the floor and shouted throughout the cabin.

Some passengers felt that the removal of the flyer in Tokyo was “a mix of misunderstanding, overreaction, and mismanagement from both sides.” Additionally, after the unruly traveler was escorted off the plane, a maintenance issue was discovered, which further delayed the journey. It wasn’t until 6:15 PM that the aircraft was able to take off again and continue its flight across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco.

Ultimately, the jet touched down safely in SFO with a 1-hour and 40-minute delay. Multiple videos have surfaced on social media in China as well as Reddit, and some of the altercations and the Japanese police response. Posted on Reddit as an eyewitness account, one of the passengers described the ejected flyer’s behavior in these words:

“I sat in the opposite aisle… [at first] She seemed like such a normal person… but just as the plane took off, she tossed all the documents in her seat pockets in the air, shouted cuss words periodically, and also periodically started hitting herself.”

Observations From The Backseat Gossip

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The poster on Reddit who claims to have been seated nearby during the incident aboard UA858 stated that they do not know how the altercation began with the FAs. They did not observe any medical condition or trigger, but the passenger began to hit themselves before speaking rudely to the cabin crew. Before elbowing the lead FA, she was seated with her eyes closed and ignored the approach of the cabin crew until they attempted to tap her on the shoulder to prompt her attention and speak with her. The witness stated that they were curious to inspect what the unruly woman was showing on her phone as evidence of oppression, but too timid to do so when other passengers declined.

The witness claims that the crew captain began scolding the ‘old lady like a child’ after she struck him, which then escalated to shouting back and forth. When she began to repeatedly yell, “No, no, you don’t talk to me like that,” the FAs left her alone for some time to de-escalate the situation. When the cabin crew was away, she allegedly tried to show everyone on the airplane a photo on her phone of how she was being ‘oppressed’ but the other flyers ignored her.

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It was shortly after this that the captain announced the diversion to Narita. When the plane landed and the police boarded, the cabin crew avoided the flyer until a Chinese-speaking officer arrived to explain the situation. The FAs did not approach during the traveler’s removal by police.

The passenger, u/Lavis_JC, who shared their account on r/unitedairlines, described the incident as “a fun and free entertaining experience” while describing the FAs and police as unprofessional and the dumped fuel as a humorous waste. The poster, who deemed the response to be inadequate, went on to speculate that the unruly flyer may have had some kind of disability or triggering event, despite admitting that they lack many key facts.