Shirtless American Airlines passenger tackles, pins crew member as flight to Chicago is thrown off course

An American Airlines flight from Connecticut to Chicago was thrown into chaos Tuesday night when a passenger suddenly ripped off his shirt and assaulted a flight attendant, pinning the crew member to the cabin floor as shocked travelers scrambled to and pry him off.

Julius Jordan Priester allegedly became “incoherent,” authorities said, once the journey was underway, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday and obtained first by The Independent.

The midair melee forced the pilot to divert the plane back to Bradley International Airport in Hartford.

Priester, a 24-year-old Kansas resident, is currently on probation for a previous aggravated assault conviction, prosecutors said in a detention motion.

An American Airlines spokesperson did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment. Priester does not yet have an attorney listed in court filings and was unable to be reached for comment.

On the evening of May 27, American flight 3359 took off without incident, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the complaint against Priester. However, the affidavit goes on, things took a sharp turn for the worse less than an hour into the two-hour-and-forty-minute trip.

That’s when Priester, who was seated toward the rear of the aircraft, abruptly stood up, removed his top, and ran to the back of the plane, yelling, “Help me,” the affidavit states.

Priester then grabbed a flight attendant by the shirt collar, shouted, “You’re coming with me,” and “forcefully brought the [flight attendant] to the ground,” the affidavit continues.

As he “attempted to drag the [flight attendant] up the aisle,” the affidavit says, other members of the flight crew shouted at Priester to stop. But Priester allegedly “refused to comply with repeated flight crew instructions to cease his actions, and he held the [flight attendant] to the ground.”

Another flight attendant reported the fracas to the captain, who declared an emergency and diverted the plane back to Hartford, the affidavit states.

“Priester was returned to a seat after the intervention of passengers on board the aircraft,” according to the affidavit.

“While under watch of one of the intervening passengers, Priester continued to act in an erratic manner, grabbing and holding onto the arm of the passenger and making incoherent statements.”

Court filings do not provide details on what might have prompted Priester’s outburst.

The flight landed safely back at Bradley Airport shortly after 10 p.m., and Priester was removed by officers with the Connecticut State Police, the affidavit says. An ambulance transported Priester to a local hospital for evaluation, where he was formally arrested on Wednesday by the FBI on one count of interference with flight crew members, a felony.

In a detention motion filed alongside the complaint, prosecutors called Priester’s alleged offense “extremely serious,” arguing that he put “the safety of all the passengers in danger.”

The motion says Priester has an established criminal history, and that his employment history and family ties to Connecticut are “largely unknown and unverified.”

“Taken together, the government submits that the defendant poses a danger to the community that no condition or combination of conditions will sufficiently mitigate, nor will they reasonably assure his appearance at future proceedings and prevent his likely flight if he is released into the community,” the motion argues.

In the first five months of 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has so far fielded 637 reports of unruly passengers; the agency received a total of 2,102 unruly passenger reports in 2024.

Bad behavior in the sky hit a modern-day high in 2021, with 5,973 passengers being reported for unruliness.

Earlier this year, a retired New York City firefighter was arrested after authorities said he got drunk and tried to enter the cockpit on an American Airlines flight from New York City to Tokyo. In March, a serial groper was banned for life from American following his third in-flight groping allegation aboard one of the carrier’s airplanes.

If convicted, Priester faces up to 20 years in prison.