Airline Passengers Recount Experience With Unruly Passenger, Flight Being Diverted To OKC

A Delta flight from DC to LAX had a smooth landing in Southern California, but what happened in the air was a bit bumpy.

Passengers Tiffany Tretta and her daughter, Mia Tretta, were startled when they said the plane made an unexpected stop Thursday night at Will Rogers World Airport.

“To take the flight home and have an altercation in mid-air on the flight, it was a bit disheartening,” Tiffany Tretta said.

Tiffany and Mia Tretta headed home after a vigil in D.C. honoring victims of gun violence and speaking out for change, an issue Mia Tretta holds close to her heart after the 2019 Saugus, California, high school shooting.

Two students died and injured several others, including Mia Tretta.

“I was shot in my lower abdomen, and obviously, there's still many physical and mental problems I face all the time. I do half online and in-person school now just because it's so hard being in that place,” Mia Tretta said.

Tiffany and Mia Tretta said what triggers them is violence can happen anywhere.

Ariel Pennington, 35, was escorted off a Delta plane headed to LAX from D.C. in handcuffs.

“She was pretty OK until he got handcuffed, and the gentlemen started screaming. He was screaming things like, 'help me, help me,'” Tiffany Tretta said.

The FBI said federal air marshals on the plane subdued a passenger who is accused of assaulting a crew member.

The flight made an emergency stop in Oklahoma City where police arrested Pennington on complaints of disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

The Trettas said there should be a zero-tolerance policy in place for people that cause problems on a plane just like in a school.