Delta Passengers Help Subdue Unruly Off-Duty Flight Attendant Who Allegedly Tried to Open Door in Mid-Air

An unruly passenger subdued after running amok is the latest in an epidemic of terrifying incidents in the sky. Stephon Duncan, an off-duty flight attendant, was restrained by other passengers after he allegedly tried to open a door in mid-air. 

The captain was heard on video asking over the intercom for “all strong males” to come to the front of the aircraft to “handle a problem passenger.” Businessman Rashaun Williams was one of the passengers who helped subdue the man. 

“You don’t know if he has a knife, if he has a gun, if he has a bomb,” Williams told Inside Edition. “I grabbed him by the shoulders, pulled him to the ground, pulled his hood over his head and then I just restrained him on the ground. In those videos you see, you see a guy in a blue hoodie — that's me. I’m holding him down the entire time.”

Minutes before the incident, Duncan was pictured wearing a helmet and a baseball hat. Police say he passed a note to a flight attendant, saying “Alert Delta manager — terrorist on board.”

“He slipped them a letter and said I was making terroristic threats,” Williams said.

The plane made an emergency landing in Oklahoma, where Duncan is being held in a county jail. In a statement, Delta Airlines thanked everyone who assisted in detaining the passenger. 

There have been nearly 3,000 unruly passenger incidents so far this year, which is more than the entire previous 10 years combined.  

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