In a bizarre incident, a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix was forced to return to the gate at Houston’s Hobby Airport after a female passenger stripped naked and began berating other passengers.
According to eyewitnesses, the woman, who has not been named, walked to the front of the plane and started removing her clothes.
She then began screaming at the top of her lungs, pounding on the cockpit doors, and harassing the flight attendants.
“She turned toward us and stripped all of her clothes off,” a passenger told KHOU-TV.
“She started jumping up and down, screaming at the top of her lungs. … It was very evident that she was having a mental breakdown.”
Another passenger described the scene as “chaotic” and said that the woman claimed she was bipolar.
“I was just hoping that the plane wouldn’t take off, which it didn’t, thank God,” the passenger said.
The incident was captured on cellphone video by one of the passengers, which showed the woman walking up and down the plane’s aisle completely naked, screaming and banging her head.
After the plane returned to the gate, a worker covered the woman in a blanket, but she then took off running.
“The lady just runs out of the airplane, and who knows where she went?” a passenger said.
Houston police told KPNX-TV that the woman was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation and is not facing any charges at this time.
Southwest Airlines apologized for the delay and inconvenience caused to passengers.
“Local law enforcement met Flight 733 from Houston to Phoenix Monday afternoon after it returned to the gate because of a customer situation onboard,” the airline said in a statement.
“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and appreciate their patience as our teams worked to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.”
