Pop star Marx helps subdue 'dangerous' airline passenger

[December 21, 2016]   SEOUL (Reuters) - American soft rock singer Richard Marx helped subdue a "chaotic" and "dangerous" passenger who launched a lengthy, violent scuffle on board a Korean Air flight from Vietnam to South Korea, the singer said on his Twitter account.

Marx, along with fellow passengers and cabin crew, tried to restrain the unruly traveler with rope on the Tuesday flight, he said.

"Passenger next to us attacked passengers and crew. Crew completely ill trained," Marx said.

The singer had been in Vietnam to sing at a Christmas concert at Hanoi's Opera House this week.

Photographs uploaded to an Instagram account belonging to Marx's wife, Daisy Fuentes, showed a man with thick-rimmed spectacles being held back by flight attendants on one side and Marx on the other.

Some video footage of the incident was also posted on YouTube.

"Stop it, you sons of a bitch!" the passenger said in Korean, spitting at airline staff as they used cable ties and a rope to restrain him.

"Do what you like!".

One photo on Fuentes's Instagram account showed a flight attendant aiming a stun gun at the passenger.

The man was handed over to police after the plane landed at Incheon airport in the South Korean capital, a spokesman for Korean Air told Reuters.

"The incident happened about an hour and 40 minutes after takeoff," the spokesman said.

"It seems like the passenger had a drink with his meal".

Marx described the incident as a "chaotic and dangerous event", which cabin crew had been "completely ill-equipped to handle".

The spokesman said cabin crew followed regulations and did not fire the stun gun for fear of injuring nearby passengers in the melee.

Fans of Marx expressed concern on Twitter for the 53-year-old's safety.

"No big 'hero' move at all," he responded.

"Just did what I would hope anyone would do in same situation".

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Nataly Pak; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Robert Birsel)
 

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