A United Airlines flight from Newark to Fort Lauderdale turned chaotic on Wednesday when a 36-year-old passenger began yelling at flight attendants after they cut him off from alcohol, and it took a former big-city police chief and an off-duty sheriff's deputy to hold him down until the plane landed. Daniel Borman, of Springfield, New Jersey, now faces a disorderly intoxication charge in Broward County following the roughly 45-minute ordeal.
The confrontation was captured on video and detailed by Local10 News, whose reporter Rosh Lowe, who has covered South Florida news for nearly two decades, wrote that flight attendants stopped serving Borman alcohol before he turned on them. Among the passengers helping restrain him was Brian O'Hara, the former chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, who described Borman's behavior as abusive and threatening toward the female flight attendants. O'Hara told the outlet that something was just off about the situation as it escalated.
Off-Duty Chief and Deputy Step In
According to the same account, O'Hara restrained Borman in a chair, grabbing one of his arms and putting it behind his back. O'Hara said he had no memory of yelling at Borman to put his hands behind his back, though his wife told him afterward that he had been doing exactly that. Multiple off-duty law enforcement officers happened to be aboard the flight, including a Bergen County, New Jersey Sheriff's Office deputy who had handcuffs on hand for Borman.
O'Hara stepped down from the Minneapolis Police Department in May amid an internal investigation, capping a tenure that began in November 2022. Before leading MPD, he spent years as Newark's public safety director and deputy mayor, having started his law enforcement career as a Newark police officer in 2001, according to MPR News. That Newark background explains why O'Hara happened to be on a flight departing from the New Jersey airport.
Airline Thanks Crew and Passengers
United Airlines issued a statement thanking its crew and customers for assisting and helping ensure everyone's safety onboard, the outlet reported. As of Thursday, Borman was not listed in Broward jail records, per the same report, though he faces the disorderly intoxication charge tied to the incident.
Under Florida Statute § 856.011, disorderly intoxication is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in county jail and a $500 fine, according to The Watson Firm. Prosecutors must show the accused was intoxicated and either caused a public disturbance or endangered safety to sustain the charge.
Federal Exposure Beyond the Local Charge
While Borman's arrest so far involves only the state misdemeanor, federal law carries far steeper stakes for disruptions aboard aircraft. Assaulting, threatening, or intimidating a flight crew member or flight attendant is a federal crime under 49 U.S.C. § 46504, carrying penalties of up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal jurisdiction attaches once an aircraft's cabin doors close, regardless of where the plane ultimately lands.
Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration can propose civil administrative penalties of up to $43,658 per violation against unruly passengers under the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, per the Allied Pilots Association, and a single disruptive incident can generate multiple violations. The FAA itself has no criminal prosecutorial authority and instead refers the most severe cases involving violence or threats to the FBI for potential criminal charges, a distinction the agency notes on its own unruly passenger guidance page. It remains an open question whether United Airlines or federal prosecutors will pursue any charges beyond Borman's local arrest.
Federal aviation rules also bar airlines from boarding visibly intoxicated passengers and prohibit travelers from drinking alcohol not served by the crew, under 14 CFR § 121.575, which underpins why flight attendants are empowered to cut off service mid-flight. Passengers found unruly can also lose TSA PreCheck eligibility and end up on airline no-fly lists under the FAA's zero-tolerance policy dating to 2021.
Part of a Broader Pattern in the Skies
The Fort Lauderdale incident joins a string of recent in-flight disruptions Hoodline has tracked this year, including a Dublin-to-Seattle mid-air scuffle in June and diversions involving United, Delta and Lufthansa flights earlier this year. FAA data show 1,621 unruly passenger reports nationwide in 2025, a 23 percent drop from 2024, with 608 more logged through mid-May 2026, according to Simple Flying. Globally, the International Air Transport Association reported that unruly incident rates improved from 1 in every 307 flights in 2024 to 1 in every 355 flights in 2025, though intoxication and verbal abuse remain leading causes of onboard disruptions.
