An Alaska Airlines flight attendant was seen restraining a crazed passenger who grabbed a womanâs hair onboard.
The bizarre incident happened on February 1 on Alaska Airlines Flight 2221 at Californiaâs Oakland International Airport just before taking off for Portland, Oregon.
The erratic male passenger, with short gray hair and glasses, was seen being held back by an unnamed male flight attendant shortly after he latched on to the hair of a female passenger in front of him.
While the flight attendant punched the man several times, trying to get him to let go of the womanâs locks, other passengers tried to step in and help.
The unnamed woman with long black hair eventually stood up and walked away as the flight attendant kept his hand on the manâs shoulder while he shrieked loudly.
It is unclear exactly what sparked the male passengerâs abnormal behavior, but according to a man who said he was on the flight, âhe was restrained for several minutes before being arrestedâ.
The aircraft returned to the gate following the incident and the flight itself was cancelled âafter an attendant refused to fly and could not be replacedâ, the passenger said.
Alaska Airlines told DailyMail.com that the male passenger âappeared to be experiencing a violent medical episode that involved an ongoing physical assault against other passengers and our crewâ.

Our flight attendantsâ highest responsibility is the safety of guests and crew on board. Our crew responded to this chaotic situation quickly and kept all guests safe until law enforcement could intervene,â the airline said, adding that the âguest in question has been banned from Alaska and Horizon due to the nature of the physical assaultâ.
The video began with the unnamed flight attendant repeatedly striking the male passenger in the throat area as his other hand pushed the manâs head to the side.
While he did so, the passengerâs hand was seen tightly latched on to the womanâs hair as she said: âLet go of my hair sir!â
Another male passenger then leaned into the seat where the crazed man was sitting and tried to help the flight attendant control him while the unruly passenger continued to hold on to the womanâs hair.
The flight attendant then told the woman to get out of her seat as he pushed the man towards the window, knocking his glasses off his head.
As the woman stood up, the deranged passenger started to scream loudly in his seat, rocking back and forth.
The flight attendant kept his hand on the manâs shoulder as he turned to other passengers and said: âI need another â people wanting to come help me.â
The man who posted the video said: âWe were about to take off from OAK to PDX but this dude started saying weird stuff and rocking back and forth.
âA flight attendant was called then he grabbed the womanâs hair in front of him and wouldnât let go, so the flight attendant started punching him in the throat.
âHe was restrained for several minutes before being arrested. The flight was cancelled after an attendant refused to fly and could not be replaced. I [sic] lady said he said he was an alcoholic on five medications before he started repeating himself and glitching out.
A woman claiming to be the one who got her hair pulled said:Â âThank you for this video. I am the woman whose hair was grabbed. My hair was not in anyoneâs way to provoke anyone to grab it.
âThe man was having a psychotic episode, banged his head multiple times on the back of my seat, shortly lost consciousness, regained consciousness and grabbed my hair close to the scalp.
