AFrontier Airlines pilot was arrested moments before taking off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston leading to the cancellation of the flight.
Seymour Walker, 45, was wanted in North Texas on an assault-family violence warrant according to police.
A video of the incident began to circulate on social media showing police officers escorting the pilot off the airplane in handcuffs. He can be seen walking down the flight steps before being led into a police vehicle. X, formerly Twitter, user @aviationbrk posted the video on Saturday. It was viewed over 500,000 times by Sunday.
Frontier Airlines pilot arrested while preparing the aircraft for departure at Houston Airport. pic.twitter.com/xEksBmrHNI
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) August 3, 2024
Local television station NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported that the region’s International Airport Department of Public Safety filed the warrant, leading to his arrest on Thursday afternoon. He was taken into custody and his been released on bond.
A spokesperson for Frontier confirmed the incident in a statement to CBS News on Saturday.
“Frontier Airlines can confirm that on August 1, 2024, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston (IAH) a crew member was taken into custody by local law enforcement.”
“The activity occurred prior to the start of boarding for Flight 3195 scheduled from IAH to Dallas Fort Worth (DFW),” it continued. “A replacement crew member was not immediately available and therefore the flight was canceled. Impacted customers were offered the option of a full refund, credit, or re-accommodation on the next available Frontier flight later that evening.”
The airline said that passengers were offered a $100 flight voucher and overnight accommodation “as needed.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, footage circulated on social media of a woman hurling a computer at Fronier staff after missing her flight in Chicago.
The video shows the woman stepping over the counter at the bag drop, One staff member tries to restrain her while she yells and accosts other staff, before she picks up a computer and keyboard and hurls it at him.
It was initially posted on TikTok by user @cindyhalasova but she said it had been removed for containing violent or graphic content. A repost of the footage posted on X by user @Chicago_Goofies had been viewed over 74,000 times by Sunday.
Crazy Karen trying to fight with frontier employees at terminal 5 at O’Hare airport #Chicago pic.twitter.com/2VyuyglaGG
— Goofies Of Chicago (@Chicago_Goofies) July 30, 2024
Frontier is a low-cost airline based in Denver. The American Customer Satisfaction Index ranks it as having the second-lowest customer satisfaction rating of any American carrier.
Maybe the other pilot or the stewards smelled alcohol on the pilot’s breath…we don’t know what the arrest was for. I personally am much less disturbed by the arrest of the pilot and taking him off the plane as I am the entitled, crazy women climbing behind the counter and throwing the computers and keyboard at folks. What.the.hell.
IF YOU had read the story, he was arrested for domestic violence.
There is a solution to all this nonsense: Stop flying! We got along fine without doing so for years.
Oh, how I miss the days of more expensive flights, when we actually got dressed up to fly, and had REAL meals. Back when you only got on an airplane to fly across the country, or overseas, and you drove, took the Greyhound bus or the train for everything else.
All this high security shit and then he is released at court with a future court date. None of this makes any sense. They could have waited till he returned to arrest him or should have done it before he boarded the plane and they had a backup pilot.