Pilot reports passenger bit a fellow flyer on plane approaching Philadelphia: “He’s trying to fight everybody”

An unruly passenger apparently bit a fellow flyer on an American Airlines flight as it approached Philadelphia on Sunday, according to the pilot of the plane. 

The passenger also seemed to become generally combative, with the pilot reporting that the individual on board was “trying to fight everybody” in air traffic control audio reviewed by CBS News.

“I don’t know … if he’s hallucinating or whatever, but he just bit a passenger and he’s trying to fight everybody,” the pilot is heard telling a controller in that audio recording, adding, “What a day, huh.”

The pilot also requested that an emergency medical crew and law enforcement meet the plane upon its arrival at Philadelphia International Airport, “just as a precaution.” It’s not clear if the unruly passenger was taken into custody. American Airlines said the passenger was experiencing a medical emergency, but did not specify. 

The flight, which left Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier in the morning, landed just before 10 a.m. ET, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

The brief exchange between the pilot and controller ended with both of them laughing. When the controller wished the pilot a happy Father’s Day, he replied: “I’ll be sure to tell my daughters about this one.”

CBS News reached out to American Airlines for comment but did not immediately hear back.

There have been a handful of incidents involving rowdy airline passengers in the last few weeks, including one in which a former professional MMA fighter took it upon himself to restrain a flyer who allegedly attempted to open an exit door on their Frontier Airlines plane mid-flight. The flight, originally headed to Chicago O’Hare Airport from San Juan, Puerto Rico, was diverted to Miami, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, citing a “passenger disturbance.”

Only a few weeks earlier, the crew of a United Airlines flight from New Jersey’s Newark Airport made an emergency landing in Washington, D.C., after a passenger allegedly tried opening a door while the plane was flying at 36,000 feet. The plane, bound for Guatemala City, landed safely in the capital, United told CBS News at the time. 

In a separate instance, another United flight from Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul was diverted to Madison, Wisconsin, after a 75-year-old man suffered what authorities and the airline described as a “mental health crisis” that created a “security concern” on board. The FBI told CBS News that federal officers had opened an investigation.