A 21-year-old Indian man, Ishaan Sharma, was arrested after a physical fight with another flyer on a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Miami on June 30.
The incident was recorded on video, which has since gone viral, showing the exchange of words between Sharma, who resides in Newark, and another passenger, Keanu Evans.
The video captures the two men trying to grab each other around the neck with onlooker passengers in the vicinity calling on them to end the fight.
Evans said that the fight was sudden. He explained to police that Sharma's attack came suddenly while he was heading back to his seat.
"He was laughing this, like, dark laugh like, 'Ha ha ha ha ha.' And he was uttering things like, 'You puny, mortal man, if you dare challenge me, it will be your death,'" Evans said to 7News. Evans sat directly across from Sharma on the plane.
Evans remembered that he went to the restroom and notified flight attendants of Sharma's disturbing conduct. He added that the crew told him to use the call button if matters escalated further. Upon his return, Evans stated that he pressed the button when Sharma allegedly continued threatening to kill him.
He explained what happened next:
"You know, he's glaring at me really angrily and we're staring eye to eye, forehead to forehead, and then he just grabs me by the throat and just begins strangling me. At that time, it was, you know, fight or flight responses set in. I'm in a small, cramped situation on an airplane, and all I can do is just fend for myself."
Sharma was arrested upon arrival in Miami and is charged with battery.
In a court hearing that took place on Tuesday, Sharma's lawyer gave a different explanation for the incident, saying that it was the result of a misunderstanding connected with his client's religious practice.
"My client belongs to a religion in which he was meditating. Unfortunately, the passenger who was behind him did not appreciate it," the lawyer is reported to have said by a news organization.
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