Man Hauled Off Plane At MIA Appears In Federal Court
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The man hauled off a plane at Miami International Airport appeared in court Tuesday afternoon.
Robert LaFargue is accused of causing big problems Monday on flight to Miami.
Martha Young sat next to him on American Airlines flight 68 from Los Angeles.
She said trouble began when the flight was about two hours away from landing.
"We see that he was arguing with people around. He was using bad language and then the stewardess came and he was rude to them," said Young.
LaFargue appeared in federal court Tuesday – accused of being drunk on the plane, staggering into the first class cabin toward the cockpit and being stopped by a male flight attendant.
CBS4 Investigative Producer Silva Harapetian was on board too, just a couple rows behind him. She said passengers told her LaFargue got into it with a flight attendant.
"He makes contact with one of the male flight attendants, he went to go, sort of grab him and this guy fought his way out of the guy," said Harapetian.
Court papers show LaFargue eventually took a seat in first class and began yelling sexually explicit comments to a woman and others.
"He began getting loud with the flight attendant and using foul language and then he started flipping people off and upset the flight attendants and then sort of rowdy and loud," said Harapetian.
From here the trouble escalated, after passengers said a booze bottle fell from his seat.
"So when he got up, what fell out," Harapetian asked Young.
"The bottle," she replied. "Whiskey or tequila, I don't know."
Investigators said it was a bottle of Jim Beam and when a female flight attendant bent over to pick it up, LaFargue shoved her from behind.
That's when air marshals jumped into action – cuffing him and holding him in the back of the plane until the flight touched down in Miami
After being led off the plane, investigators said LaFargue yelled more obscenities at police, kicked a Miami-Dade officer and hit an air marshal.