A man has been filmed going on a rampage at the JetBlue check-in area at New York JFK after he was reportedly refused passage to fly to the Haitian capital, Port au Prince.
Video footage obtained by the flight attendant’s social media page, A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge, shows the man shouting and screaming at passersby, who look on in stunned silence as the man stalks around the check-in area.
As the video progresses, the man gets increasingly agitated and starts to lash out at the check-in computers and self-help kiosks before a lone cop arrives on the scene and manages to bear hug him away from the JetBlue counter.
The exact reason for the man’s meltdown remains unconfirmed, but it is understood that he was trying to fly to Haiti. At one point in the video, the man is heard screaming: “I need to get to Haiti on the next scheduled flight… the next scheduled flight.”
Surprisingly, some passengers who were waiting in line for check-in assistance continued to wait in an orderly queue even as the man shouted in their faces and started to attack the barriers, which hit some of the bystanders.
The incident comes less than three weeks after a man of Haitian descent was videoed going on the rampage at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago de Chile after he reportedly discovered that he had been sold a fake airline ticket.
The man was attempting to fly with American Airlines to Miami, but when he got to the check-in counter, he ended up in a confrontation with the staff when they told him that his ticket wasn’t actually valid.
The man then flew into a rage and allegedly pulled a hammer from his bag. As stunned bystanders looked on, he then set about taking the hammer to the computers and large check-in screens.
Local police believe the man caused as much as $22,000 in damage to the check-in equipment and video monitors.
Due to continuing civil unrest in the country, it is increasingly difficult to get to and from Haiti, with most US carriers curtailing services to Port Au Prince. JetBlue is the only airline in the New York area currently serving Haiti with a single daily flight aboard an Airbus A320 from JFK.
Travel experts have warned that the lack of competition has driven up flight prices, making it harder than ever for the large Haitian diaspora in the New York area to get home.
