Moment American Airlines passenger PUNCHES flight attendant in face

• Keith Edward Fagiana was on AA Flight 1497 that departed Fort Worth, Texas heading to Bozeman, Montana on Wednesday when the incident took place 
• The plane had to make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas and Fagiana was handcuffed and removed from the aircraft
• He faces charges of interfering with the flight crew; if convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison
• Anyone with information, please email ruth.bashinsky@mailonline.com 

This is the moment an American Airlines passenger is escorted from a flight after punching and spitting in attendant’s face, forcing the plane to be diverted.

The bizarre ordeal took place on Wednesday when pilots had to make an emergency landing at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport around 2.20pm after an unruly passenger, identified as Keith Edward Fagiana, acted out.

Fagiana was on Flight 1497 that departed Fort Worth, Texas heading to Bozeman, Montana when he allegedly punched a flight attendant in the face, kicked a police officer in the groin and spit on other assisting officers.

Some of the passengers had to intervene and subdue the man before he was handcuffed and taken off the aircraft. 

According to an agent, Fagiana said that he didn’t have any recollection of the flight, but ‘admitted he had drunk some Captain Morgans’ — a brand of rum — at bars before the flight, the Associated Press reported. 

He faces charges of interfering with a flight crew. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

Fagiana is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court on Monday.

According to a flight attendant, a passenger on the plane had complained that Fagiana was kicking their seat in a very aggressive manner.

When the male flight attendant approached the passenger and asked him to stop, the man became violent.

He reportedly cussed before punching the flight attendant in the stomach and then continued to hit him at least three times, the news outlet reported. 

Another passenger taking footage of the harrowing event captured the flight attendant yelling at Fagiana: ‘Stop, stop, stop. What the (expletive) are you doing?’ 

She also said he was banging his head on the plane of the window, ABC 7 News reported.

During the ordeal, some of the passengers jumped in and tried to restrain the man as the flight attendant placed flex cuffs onto Fagiana before the plane landed.

An FBI agent’s testimony said that Fagiana spit at the officers and kicked one of them as they were placing handcuffs on him. They also had put a ‘spitting mask’ on his face.

On Friday, the FBI’s agent testimony was in unsealed court documents. 

It remains unclear if Fagiana has legal counsel. 

In 2023, there was a staggering 2,031 unruly passenger incidents, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

A 59 percent decline from 2022, when 2,455 incidents were reported.

The highest number of unruly passenger incidents took place in 2021 when there was 5,973 compared to the pre-Covid days of 2018 when there were just 1,161 reports and only 889 incidents in 2018.