Passengers and crew on a flight from San Antonio headed to Las Vegas were in for a surprise Thursday afternoon when they witnessed an apparent fight between baggage handlers who were slugging one another underneath a neighboring plane parked at the terminal.
According to the crew member who sent the video, 182 passengers were aboard the flight.
In a video sent to the Tribune-Review, two men wearing neon vests are tussling directly below an Interjet aircraft that is parked at a gate. Interjet is a budget-friendly Mexican airline.
The vehicle used to lift bags into the plane can be seen still attached in the background.
The fracas was captured by crew on the Frontier Airlines flight heading to Las Vegas. Pilots can be heard laughing and commenting as one “ramper” is atop the other delivering blows.
Another man shows up in the video briefly, apparently trying to flag down some help, and he trots out of view after a several seconds.
It appears the captain radios in to the terminal: “Look out of Door 1-R. There’s two rampers fighting near the front of this airplane to the right.”
“My God,” a woman replies.
“Yeah. I feel weird. All right, thanks.”
A struggle continues for a few seconds with the man on top pinning the other man’s arms to the pavement.
They get up, and appear to retrieve items that fell out of their pockets during the scuffle.
“That’s a girl fight, man,” the pilot quips.
The man who went for help comes back alone and has a brief discussion with the combatants.
Then it appears everyone gets back to work — including the pilots, who decided to push back for Vegas after the interruption.
“We were watching the fight to the right. … Those guys were rolling around, slugging each other. … Yeah. It was rough. … Standby,” the captain calls in to air traffic controllers.
An airport spokesman said officials were aware of the incident, but had not seen video footage.
“There were no arrests made, but the San Antonio Airport Police Department did issue citations to both individuals,” said Rich Stinson, Strategic Communications director at San Antonio International Airport.
The men were employees of a third-party contractor and not employees of the airport or either airline, Stinson said.
An investigation is pending, he said.
