A United Airlines aircraft to Miami was forced to land mid-flight after an unruly New Jersey man attacked two other passengers.
John Yurkovich Jr, 45, had to be restrained with zip ties, and a doctor on board was forced to use Benadryl via injection in his buttocks to help calm him down.
Court reports say that John Yurkovich was arrested after the aircraft, which took off from Newark, NJ, just after 8 am Wednesday, was forced to land in South Carolina due to a disruptive passenger.
According to the FBI complaint, John Yurkovich was carrying two grams of methamphetamine at the time.
The complaint stated that he allegedly became upset after going to the bathroom, and when he returned to his seat, he was acting erratic and seemed to be off-balance, and that when he was seated, he yelled out loud, attracting the attention of some passengers in the neighbouring area.
Authorities said that at one point, the suspect was seen getting what seemed to be pills from his carry on and ingesting them, and a passenger sitting next to him put up his hands to brace himself from Yurkovich falling on him, prompting the suspect to take off his mask and start yelling at the person.
According to court reports, Yurkovich allegedly yelled, “Don’t f–king put your hands on me! I’ll f–king punch you in the face.” He then began hitting the male passenger at least seven times, breaking his glass and cutting open his ear, causing extreme bleeding.
The victim needed seven stitches for the gash on his left ear, which the FBI complaint says was from a series of punches, and the complaint stated that some of the passengers tried to restrain Yurkovich, but one sustained a broken nose in the process.
The unruly passenger was charged with federal assault charges and criminal acts on an aircraft, as well as state charges for alleged drug possession.
John Yurkovich’s lawyer, Rose Mary Parham, told the News & Observer in a statement that the whole incident was quite uncharacteristic of John, and that he was a devoted husband, father and successful businessman.
We can’t have crazed junkie’s going psycho on a plane, and if they can’t be respectful, then they should stay at home, and it’s only a matter of time before something very bad happens on a flight because our friendly skies have long gone.
And it’s nice to see that the passengers helped, but with all the drug-sniffing dogs and security, how on earth did he manage to get Meth on board the aircraft? And they need a no-fly list for people like this, and he should lose his right to fly from now on, and he should have been jailed immediately.
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