A passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing after two female flight attendants started a shocking midair punch-up. Trouble broke out around 40 minutes into the Delta flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis between two cabin attendants arguing about “work issues”.

The pair allegedly began a fist fight — and a third female attendant who tried to calm things down was whacked in the face. When the captain heard of the trouble he radioed air traffic control to authorise an unscheduled landing so he could “hear from the flight attendants”. The Boeing 757-200 diverted to Salt Lake City in Utah where the three cabin crew members were kicked off the plane.

The aircraft was grounded for 80 minutes while a back-up crew was found before taking off again for Minneapolis 75 minutes behind schedule.
One of the 300 passengers later said they were told that three cabin crew members had been kicked off due to “bad behaviour”.

The decision to divert was made at 37,000 feet, when the plane was about 180 nautical miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. According to flight records, the plane left Los Angeles, California at 16.50 and arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 21.42 — four hours and 52 minutes later.

In a statement, Delta said: “We apologise to those customers who were inconvenienced after flight 2598 from Los Angeles to Minneapolis made an unscheduled stop in Salt Lake City following an altercation involving two flight attendants on board. The actions of these crew members in no way reflect the values and professionalism we expect from all of our employees. We strive to ensure that every customer has a great experience with Delta. We regret that our customers’ experience did not live up to our expectations. We provided a letter to our customers immediately upon landing in Minneapolis-St. Paul to apologise for any inconvenience this situation may have caused. To reimburse our passengers, SkyMiles members received miles, while customers who are not currently SkyMiles members received a travel voucher.”