MIAMI — A former pro MMA fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt turned a potential airborne nightmare into a takedown for the ages when he twice subdued a raging passenger who assaulted a flight attendant and desperately tried to pry open an emergency exit door mid-flight.
Frontier Airlines Flight 3345 had been airborne for about 45 minutes on May 31, en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Chicago O’Hare, when all hell broke loose. Juan Gabriel Reyes, 51, of Pahokee, Florida, started acting erratically, announcing he wanted off the plane, then lunged for the rear emergency exit.
When that failed, because physics makes opening a pressurized jet door at cruising altitude damn near impossible, Reyes allegedly choked an off-duty flight attendant, shoved aggressively at the cockpit door, and even tried to urinate on the bathroom floor, according to cops and witnesses.
Enter Josh Longood, 37, a Mansfield, Ohio, native and Chicago resident returning from his brother’s bachelor party. Seated nearby in seat 31-C and wearing a Jiu-Jitsu shirt that proved prophetic, the medical device salesman and former MMA fighter sprang into action.
“I knew he was gonna do something crazy so I restrained him,” Longood said. “I knew I had to be the one to step in, and I knew I could do it safely without anybody getting injured.”
Longood held the thrashing Reyes down for roughly 10 minutes before other passengers helped flex-cuff him. But the wild man slipped the restraints and went berserk again. Longood jumped back in, controlling him for another 20-30 minutes until the Airbus made an emergency landing in Miami around 11:55 p.m.
Shaky passenger video captured the drama: Longood and others pinning the suspect while he screamed obscenities, including “You dumb fking bitch!” and “You’re not gonna die — look what she’s fking doing!” and repeatedly hollered “I’ll get out!”
In a split-screen clip circulating online, a smiling Longood flashes a thumbs-up in his black “JIU-JITSU” T-shirt on the left while the right side shows the intense restraint in progress.
No one was seriously hurt. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies hauled Reyes off in cuffs once the plane touched down safely. He faces federal charges, including interfering with a flight crew and assault.
Frontier confirmed the diversion and said the flight eventually continued to Chicago after the disruption.
Longood, a 2007 Mansfield Senior High grad and Ohio State alum who trains competitively in BJJ, downplayed his heroics. “I’m confident in my training and abilities to handle real-life situations like these,” he told reporters.
