INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Federal Aviation Administration has begun an investigation into a passenger who was detained Tuesday after a disturbance forced a United Airlines flight to turn around at Indianapolis International Airport.
Indianapolis Airport Authority officials confirmed the incident happened on Flight 3989, an Embraer E175LL plane operated by MESA on behalf of United, which was headed to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
A MESA spokesperson told WISH a passenger stood up shortly after takeoff and “tried to move up the aisle” but was stopped by another passenger.
The FAA on Tuesday night shared a transcript of the interaction between the air traffic controller and the pilot.
Air traffic controller: “Air Shuttle 3989 when you can, can you let me know what’s going on please?”
Pilot: “Yeah we have a belligerent passenger trying to open the cabin door, we have passengers trying to get him secured in a seat right now.”
Pilot: “Affirmative and we’d like to return, we’re ready for the approach, we’re gonna need law enforcement to meet us at the gate and if you could possibly contact our operations for us and let ‘em know we’re returning to the gate.”
Airport police responded and detained the passenger involved. Indianapolis Airport Authority officials said there was no impact on airport operations.
Online flight tracker FlightAware shows the aircraft left Indianapolis at 11:46 a.m. EDT and returned at 12:12 p.m. EDT.
The flight departed again at 1:22 p.m. EDT and arrived about two hours later.
News 8’s Gregg Montgomery contributed to this report.
