newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Flight attendants have been feeling the strain in recent years.

In a scene reminiscent of JetBlue attendant Steven Slater's 2010 meltdown, a flight attempting to leave Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport returned to the airport after a flight attendant suffered a breakdown while giving the preflight safety message.

The Chicago Tribune reported that passengers gave this account of the incident: The flight attendant said over the intercom that the plane was returning to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport due to mechanical problems. Other flight attendants interrupted her and said that was not true, and the plane was fine and prepared for takeoff.

The flight attendant then said a crash would not be her fault, and began to speak incoherently.

Passenger Brad LeClear helped to restrain the woman. "She told me she was bipolar," he said, according to ABC News.  ”She started talking about 9/11. Toward the end of this whole struggle she said, "I am going to kill them all.'"

The Daily reported that the other flight attendants and some passengers wrestled the attendant to a seat, and it took about five people to hold her down, passengers said. The woman reportedly said she was bipolar and had not taken her medication.

Another passenger, Bethany Christakos said she will "never forget" the sound of the attendant's "blood curdling screams" just before the attendant was removed from the plane. She said, "I will never get the sound out of my head." One passenger called the screams “demonic.”

The Dallas Observer reported that the flight returned to the gate by 9:15 a. m. and police took the flight attendant, kicking and screaming, to a police car on the tarmac, according to passengers.

Two flight attendants were taken to hospitals for treatment. The flight attendant crew was replaced, and the plane took off about a half-hour later.  Christakos said the second flight attempt went smoothly, aided by the new flight attendants crew’s liberal pouring of alcohol.