Flight forced to turn around after man refuses to stop doing yoga
A 72-year-old passenger on a United Airlines flight from Honolulu to Tokyo last week became outraged when he was asked to stop doing yoga in the back of the plane and return to his seat, the FBI says.
The pilot had to turn the plane around when the man, Hyongtae Pae, started to yell at flight attendants who asked him to go back to his seat during meal service, The Associated Press reports. When his wife made the same request, he shoved her, irate because "he felt that she was siding with the flight crew," the criminal complaint said. U.S. Attorney Darren Ching said Pae also tried to headbutt and bite Marines who were passengers on the plane and tried to get him back in his seat.
The complaint says Pae threatened to kill his fellow passengers and yelled that there is no God, and Ching said he flew into a rage because he felt he was being told what to do by the flight crew. Pae is a danger to his wife, himself, and others, Ching said, and is on suicide watch inside a detention center in Honolulu. A judge ordered Pae released on $25,000 bond, but said he cannot leave Oahu and must undergo a mental health evaluation. His defense attorney, Jin Tae Jim, said Pae and his wife, who live in South Korea, went to Hawaii for their 40th anniversary, and he took up yoga to deal with his anxiety. He also said Pae told him when the incident occurred, he hadn't slept in 11 days.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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