A teenage boy refused to turn off his phone as a Southwest Airlines plane began its initial landing approach, but he didn’t get in trouble. Instead, an elderly passenger sitting next to him is the one who had to face being arrested.
68-year-old Russell Earl Miller apparently takes those flight attendant announcements pretty seriously. After the message came over the intercom for passengers to turn off their electronic devices, Miller noticed the young boy next to him wasn’t obeying the command. So he did what any 68-year-old short-tempered man named Russell Earl Miller would do – he punched the boy in the arm.
The victim didn’t require medical attention, but the punch was reportedly so hard that it left a mark on his arm. Russell told a local newspaper he only “tapped” the young passenger.
A conflicting Reuters report suggests the assault happened on the ground before the flight even took off, but if that happened you would think the plane would never have gone into the air. The flight was from Las Vegas to Boise, Idaho.
Miller was arrested as soon as the plane landed in Boise. Other passengers on the plane corroborated the story.
Southwest has declined to comment on the situation. [[iPhone]]
