A 67-year-old man accused of unleashing a violent midair tirade has broken his silence about his outburst that ended with passenger sitting on his lap after he was duct-taped to his seat.
Layne Arthur Lundeen was traveling in first class aboard American Airlines Flight 618 from Dallas to Newark on Sept. 3 when his behavior allegedly took a sudden and disturbing turn roughly two hours into the journey, eventually forcing the pilot to divert the plane to Baltimore.
Until then, the man sitting beside him said there had been little reason to expect trouble.
‘Friendly’ to unruly
Jonathan Cahn, an author and Messianic rabbi, told People that Lundeen – an Arizona realtor – had been “really friendly” during the first two hours of their flight as the pair talked. But Cahn said something changed when their conversation moved to religion and his books, which explore biblical prophecy.
Lundeen’s “face changes, and his expression changes, his voice changes, everything changes,” Cahn recalled, alleging the “increasingly unruly” passenger suddenly started directing vulgar and antisemitic comments toward him.
“He looks at me like he’s whispering a secret for me to hear. He says, ‘Bulls***,’” Cahn claimed. “He said, ‘Go f*** yourself.’”
Cahn said he tried to turn his attention elsewhere as Lundeen grew louder and more aggressive.
“He puts his hands around my neck, like he’s choking me,” the “doomsday prophet” told People.
‘Assaulting’ the ‘poor gentleman’ next to him
Juan Mejia, a retired New Jersey police officer seated two rows ahead with Richard Olenick, compared the situation to the flick of a “light switch,” where “all of a sudden, it went from quiet to yelling and chaos.
“I turned around to look, and the poor gentleman that was sitting next to him in the aisle seat, the individual had his hands around his neck and was, like, assaulting him,” Mejia told CBS News.
Olenick, the owner of a gun range, alleged Lundeen also used “racial and homophobic slurs,” while Mejia described the atmosphere in first class as increasingly hostile.
“Everyone who was in first class was basically victimized by his spewing of hatred and the discrimination, and the hostility, and vulgarness that was coming out of his mouth,” Mejia told the outlet.
Duct-taped to seat
The pair stepped in to help but said Lundeen fought them as well.
“He bit my hand. He didn’t break skin, just left teeth marks on my hand. We were covered in his blood,” Mejia said. “He was bleeding quite a bit from cuts that he inflicted on himself.”
With zip ties supplied by a flight attendant and enough duct tape to leave little doubt that he was staying put, Mejia and Olenick restrained his hands and secured his body to the seat.
“Physically it lessened his ability to move for sure, but it did not solve the issue. He was still pushing and resisting and trying to get up,” Olenick told CNN.
His mouth was also not taped – allowing him to breathe freely and hurl more insults – and Olenick said he sat on his lap until the plane landed, “because the man started acting up again.”
For the next 15 minutes, Lundeen remained restrained as the aircraft diverted to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where police were waiting.
But the confrontation allegedly wasn’t over. According to court records, once police removed the restraints, Lundeen then struck an officer in the chest before being escorted from the aircraft and taken into custody.
He was charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.
‘Oh my God. What a mess…’
The next day, Lundeen appeared before District Court Commissioner George Haag in Annapolis, where audio obtained by The Baltimore Banner captured him struggling to make sense of the allegations against him.
“I don’t remember any of what happened,” he claimed during the Sept. 4 hearing.
“I assaulted a police officer? Is that what it says?” Lundeen asked as the charges were explained to him. “I don’t have glasses.”
Lundeen said the last thing he remembered from the flight was talking with Cahn and repeatedly insisted he had no memory of what followed.
He did, however, remember that he had consumed “two screwdrivers” – though Mejia said, “I remember one of the stewardesses saying they only gave him one drink.”
As the allegations were laid out before him, his reaction summed up the predicament he now found himself in.
“Oh my God. What a mess… I don’t remember any of it,” he’s hear saying in the audio.
Lost job as consequence
The consequences had already followed him off the plane. Long Realty in Tucson, Arizona, where Lundeen had worked, announced after the incident that it had “ended its affiliation” with him, saying the conduct described in reports was incompatible with the standards it expected from those associated with the company.
“I got a double whammy for my trip. Well, now it’s a triple whammy,” Lundeen reportedly said.
Lundeen was released on his own recognizance and ordered not to use alcohol or drugs other than prescribed medication. His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 19 in Maryland.
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