Lundeen, an Arizona realtor who lost his job after the episode, claimed he had no memory of the outburst. Fellow passengers bound him to his first-class seat with duct tape and zip-ties, and he allegedly struck one of the officers who dragged him off the plane. He was arrested and charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.
The flight had left Dallas, Texas, and had been in the air for about two hours before the disruption, according to Juan Mejia, a retired law enforcement officer who helped tie Lundeen down. Mejia told CBS that a flight attendant mentioned serving at least one drink.
The passenger seated next to Lundeen, Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, said the two were casually chatting before Lundeen snapped when the topic turned to religion. Cahn said Lundeen hollered profanities and racial slurs and began “blaspheming Jesus and God.”
Cahn described a sudden transformation. “I have never seen someone change in a split second from light to dark as I saw then, as if something had taken him over,” he previously said. “He went from the friendliest guy in the world to this dark person.”
The emergency stop in Maryland followed the Sept. 3 tirade on the flight to Newark. Lundeen told the judge he had downed two screwdrivers — orange juice and vodka cocktails — before the outburst, according to The Baltimore Banner, which obtained audio of his appearance.