Pennsylvania

Unruly Passenger Taken Off Plane at Miami International Airport

A Pennsylvania woman was arrested at Miami International Airport for allegedly being disorderly on a flight and not complying with the flight crew, according to a police report.

Karen Halnon, 52, was on an American Airlines flight headed from Managua, Nicaragua to Miami on Saturday.

Officials and passengers said Halnon, a Penn State University professor, started ranting about halfway through her two and a half hour flight.

"The United States has declared war on Venezuela! The United States has declared war on Venezuela!" the woman repeatedly said, according to iPhone footage shot by a fellow passenger. "Venezuela has been declared an international security threat!"

The video also showed the woman lighting up a cigarette and trying to blame another passenger.

Reached by phone Monday night, Halnon told NBC 6 she was "protesting U.S. military global domination, U.S. imperialism."

Halnon, who described herself as a revolutionary, said she didn't mean any harm and said the cigarette was a joke.

"That was more in jest, every good revolutionary smokes," she said. "You have to have a sense of humor when you're in this kind of situation.

Blake Goodwin said he was sitting in the aisle seat next to the woman.

"That was the first time I was actually nervous for my safety because I was in close proximity to the woman," Goodwin told NBC 6 in a phone interview Monday. "As we were landing she was calling us fascist and capitalist."

A flight attendant is later heard telling Halnon she's going to be taken off the plane by police.

"So I'm gonna say my piece before I'm arrested," Halnon said, before continuing her rant.

Police said when the plane landed and an officer approached her, she was asked to stop yelling but refused. She was asked to exit the plane but replied, "(Expletive) you. This is not a democracy."

Halnon reportedly refused to calm down and was escorted off the plane where she was later arrested for disorderly conduct. 

She was taken to Miami's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Halnon said she was questioned by the FBI and was mistreated.

"They made the room extremely, extremely cold, they chained me to what you might call a bed but it was just a metal, flat thing, and would not allow me to go to the bathroom," she said.

Halnon was released and flew back to Philadelphia on Monday without incident. She said it was worth it, and hinted that it may not be the last time she protests.

"I would do it again," she said.

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