Passenger cited after hitting Frontier Airlines flight attendant with intercom phone

A passenger who was asked to leave a Frontier Airlines plane departing from Denver was later cited for striking an airline employee with an intercom phone, according to the airline and police.

While Frontier Airlines Flight 708 awaited an early Sunday departure to Tampa from Denver International Airport, the airline’s main hub, the female passenger “became belligerent onboard and was asked to deplane,” the statement said. “As she was deplaning, she picked up an intercom phone and struck a flight attendant with it.”

In a statement to CNN, the Denver Police Department said the passenger was cited for assault in connection with the incident.

The flight left for Tampa around 5:30 a.m. local time, after the woman was removed from the plane, according to Frontier. The flight left Denver nearly four hours late, according to FlightAware tracking data.

The passenger was able to book another flight home after being released, according to police.

It’s not clear what behavior led to the passenger initially being asked to leave the plane.

The Denver International Airport told CNN in an email Sunday that it, “unfortunately,” didn’t “have information on the flight.”

In November, a Frontier Airlines flight out of Cincinnati made an emergency landing in Atlanta after a passenger, who was later arrested, was seen with a box cutter, an airline spokesperson said.

The passenger had a second box cutter in his carry-on baggage, the Transportation Security Administration told CNN at the time.

The Federal Aviation Authority has received reports of at least 670 unruly airline passengers in 2023 as of May 14, the US transportation agency’s statistics showed.

There were 2,455 unruly passengers reported in 2022, according to the FAA.