A plane was forced into an emergency landing after a passenger lit a joint mid-flight.
The incident took place on board an American Airlines flight from Pheonix to Minneapolis. Passengers were not informed as to the specific reason for the emergency landing. The pilot simply said they had to land in Denver due to "a security issue in the back."
This lack of clarity was extremely concerning for passengers who TMZ reported were "little freaked out" by the announcement.
The man who lit the joint did so in one of the plane's bathrooms and flight attendants desperately surrounded the cubicle, pleading with him to come out and extinguish the joint.
A passenger took the following footage of the incident as it unfolded:According to reports, the man stayed in the bathroom for ten minutes, presumably until he had finished the joint, before finally leaving and returning to his seat ten minutes before the plane made its emergency landing in Denver.
He was described as appearing "jittery" at this time.
Once the plane safely landed, police came on board to apprehend the man. However, instead of accepting his fate, he took out a lighter and an additional joint, forcing the captain to ask all passengers in the first 13 rows to leave.
The man subsequently punched a fellow passenger as they tried to leave the aircraft.
When he was finally removed from the plane, the man was handcuffed and placed on a gurney. He then demanded officers remove the cuffs, shouting: "Take it off, it hurts. I’ll f*cking kill you!"
In an interview with TMZ, a representative from American Airlines said: "Flight 2408 diverted due to a disruptive passenger. Law enforcement met the flight, and the aircraft re-departed."
The plane continued its journey to Minneapolis two hours later.