Passengers pry man out of headlock during brawl on Southwest flight, video shows

Fellow passengers intervened when a fight broke out on a Southwest Airlines flight after one man said another “approached me aggressively.”

A video posted to Twitter on March 6 shows passengers aboard Flight 117 from Dallas to Phoenix trying to de-escalate the situation.

A man in a baseball cap can be heard taunting the man he has in a headlock while fellow passengers say, “Get off of him.”

People can be heard repeatedly saying “let go” and “stop hitting him.”

The second video shows the man explaining his perspective of the events.

The man in the cap can be heard saying, “Tell them what happened” to the man he just had in a headlock.

“I’ll tell everybody what happened. He approached me aggressively with my family,” the man said. “Don’t play with my family.”

The man goes on to say he will defend his family at all costs.

“I would sit down in jail for you approaching my family,” he says. “I would die for my family.”

“Witnesses said both men were taken off the plane,” WFAA reported.

Dallas police were waiting for the men when they got off the plane, but no arrests were made, according to Fox News.

One woman told Fox that the fight began when one passenger bumped into the other man’s wife “by accident.”

McClatchy News confirmed with Southwest Airlines that the flight landed in Phoenix on time.

Although the airline didn’t give further information in its statement to McClatchy News, it did praise the flight crew.

“Our Flight Crews are well trained in de-escalation and we commend them for managing the situation and ensuring the Safety and Comfort of the other Passengers in the cabin,” the airline said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Passengers pry man out of headlock during brawl on Southwest flight, video shows."