A Nebraska man is facing charges after an altercation on board a Comair flight headed to the
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport on Friday.
Around 10 a.m. Friday, the control tower notified airport police to respond out to the runway to Comair Flight 6544 for an unruly passenger.
"Most of the time if they have an unruly passenger they'll just taxi to the gate but the flight crew felt he was such a danger they wanted immediate action and that's why they asked us to meet him at the plane," said Chief Kevin Murphy of airport police.
Police arrested 36-year-old Russell Krebs of Omaha who told officers his final destination was eventually to Pittsburgh for his grandmother's funeral.
"Sometime during the flight this gentleman received several drinks and when the flight attendant said he had enough and cut him off, basically, he became belligerent to the point where he stood up and started to cause a problem within the flight," added Murphy.
A passenger on board says Krebs then started a fight.
"He took a swing at somebody and there was a pilot next to him and so they handcuffed him and kept him under control until we got in the landing area," said Passenger Janice Miller.
According to police, the off duty pilot and a flight attendant put Krebs in plastic cuffs until they arrived.
"He's 6'3", roughly 200 plus pounds, he's a rarely large man so in a small aircraft, which was a regional aircraft, he could have done a lot of damage to the plane," said Murphy. "The flight crew and he did a great job of taking control of this man and making sure there wasn't any damage to the plane."
Russell Krebs is facing misdemeanor charges of alcohol intoxication, disorderly conduct, failure to place narcotics in a proper container, and possession of a controlled substance.
He was booked in the Boone County Jail on Friday afternoon.
The FBI is investigating what took place in the air so federal charges may also be added.
