CLEVELAND — Frontier Airlines Flight 2415 to Phoenix was just about to take off Monday evening when the captain returned the plane to the terminal at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to have three passengers removed.
Hopkins spokesman John Goersmeyer offered few details, noting that a female passenger was upset and had to be removed along with her companion.
Goersmyer said a third passenger also was taken off the plane. He did not have the names of the three passengers nor any report readily available. The Cleveland Division of Police, which was called to escort the passengers off the plane, also did not have any details or written documents related to the incident.
3News has learned the third passenger removed from the flight was Steve Loomis, a Cleveland homicide detective and former head of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, the union that represent officers.
Loomis told 3News a female passenger near his seat started yelling and cursing for an unknown reason and then became belligerent with the flight crew.
“The chick was out of her mind,” Loomis said.
Loomis said he filmed the woman to document the incident in case “something went stupid.”
“I was a church mouse, holding the phone to my chest,” he said.
Loomis said a flight attendant did ask him to stop recording and put the phone away, but he refused.
“I told them this is for your benefit and I was protecting you,” Loomis said, adding he was willing to jump in if the woman needed to be restrained.
Loomis said he and four other detectives were on the plane and headed to Phoenix for a homicide training conference.
3News will update this story as more records become available.
More from Mark Naymik:
- Lake County Clerk of Courts Faith Andrews' legal defense cost taxpayers nearly $34,000 in first month
- Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s senior strategist for equity never started job
- Lake County Clerk of Courts Faith Andrews accused of mocking judges, mismanaging office
- 'We have underpaid compared to other cities': Cleveland Division of Police still losing officers
