There are a lot of rules on airplanes, but most of them are fairly common sense. You know, don"t smoke, don"t shove the flight attendants, and definitely don"t threaten to murder everyone onboard.
Unfortunately, one woman apparently didn"t get the memo, as she managed to do all three in a very short amount of time.
It doesn"t sound like anybody actually got hurt, but she"s obviously in major trouble. And yes, folks. There"s video.
As you"re about to see in the video below, a woman named Valerie Curbelo seemed to lose her mind on a Southwest Airlines flight.
Now, plenty of people feel like they"re "gonna lose it" on a flight.
Maybe a kid keeps kicking their seat. Maybe they"re sitting beside someone with poor boundaries or who won"t stop talking or who snores loudly.
(There are other potential complaints that one might have — airplanes are metal tubes that cram as many humans into them as possible for hours at a time)
But feeling irritated by circumstances is very, very different from what happened to Valerie.
She"s in jail, folks.
Apparently, Valerie Curbelo went into the bathroom, tampered with the smoke detector, and smoked.
On an airplane.
Like it"s the 1960s or something.
That is, to be clear, absolutely inexcusable. The do-not-smoke signs are impossible to miss, and it"s been more or less understood in society for years and years that you don"t just start smoking in an enclosed public place like it"s The Purge.
As bad as that is, though, it"s what Valerie did next that got her into so much more trouble.
And that"s the part that was captured on video.
Valerie can be seen irate, having apparently grabbed her belongings and even donned a hat.
Angrily, she yells:
"I have a destination for myself!"
That"s a worrisome and also very strange thing to say, let alone yell while dressed as though you"re about to try to leap out of the plane with the expectation that you"ll suddenly learn how to fly.
"I swear, if you don’t … land."
Oh boy, threats.
"I will f—ing kill everybody on this f—ing plane!"
She reportedly then shoved an airline attendant and had to be restrained for the rest of the flight.
Upon landing, she was arrested on a felony charge of making a death threat. Obviously.
As you"ll also see in the video, she is now at a loss to explain her behavior on the plane, saying only that it was brought about by anxiety.
Having a hankering for a cigarette is not an excuse for anything, but … what if there"s something more?
Everyone"s brain is a little different. If this is an isolated incident, it may be that this woman"s body responds to a change in air pressure in a dramatic way that made her behavior beyond her control.
If there"s an identifiable and treatable mental illness behind this, she could go on to live a fairly normal life.
But we don"t imagine that she"ll be welcome on many airplanes in the near future.
Those No-Fly lists are not a laughing matter.
