Shock moment flight attendants wrestle female passenger to ground after she tried to storm cockpit on plane to New York
Passengers on board the New York-bound American Airlines flight watched in confusion as staff scuffled with the woman and restrained her.
Bizarre footage from inside the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner showed the cockpit door wide open while the plane was still at Brazil's Sao Paulo airport.
Flight attendants can be seen struggling to get the door closed before a woman makes an odd intervention by trying to storm the cockpit.
The middle-aged smartly-dressed passenger confronts the staff – sparking a squabble.
The crew member can be heard telling the first-class passenger: 'Get out, get out.'
As the pair continue to argue the crew member ends up taking the woman down to the ground as she continues to protest.
Another flight attendant then restrains her and escorts her back to her first-class seat.
Baffled passengers watched on as the woman is ushered past them.
One angry flyer is seen standing up in his seat, demanding an explanation from the woman.
He is heard screaming in fury at the woman – visibly upset by her rash behaviour.
The woman reportedly made her strange coup attempt after complaining about the delayed takeoff.
Both passengers were handed over to police after the jet returned to the boarding gate following the confrontation.
The shocking ordeal took place on American Airlines flight AA950 bound for JFK on April 24, according to local media.
The quick brawl delayed the flight by more than two hours, according to the FlightAware tracking website.
American Airlines confirmed the brawl, and said that the flight returned to the gate due to a 'safety problem on board'.
'The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority and we thank everyone for their understanding,' the airline said.
'The aircraft was received by police officers.'
They confirmed that the flight took off finally by 12.55am local time.
Last month, shocking footage captured the moment two angry passengers clashed over a reclined seat while on a busy flight to Bali.
The pair got into a heated argument before attempting to get physical with one another.
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News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship: What we actually know
Epstein abused underage girls. He ingratiated himself with the rich and famous. But was he part of a global cult of Satan-worshipping paedophiles? Was he an agent of a blackmail ring bent on bending powerful men to their will? The 47th President of the United States is caught in a vice of his own making. On one side is Donald Trump's MAGA movement. Some are fervent believers of a 'deep state' conspiracy to protect a child-sex cabal. Or of a secret Mossad plot to twist world governments to Israel's will. It depends on which influencer you listen to. On the other is a need for evidence. Trump is President again. And it's his last chance to produce for the MAGA followers demanding that the Democrats, the Clintons, the Bidens – and any other offending member of the 'ruling elite' – be locked up. The pressure point is disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,' Trump declared to New York Magazine in 2002. 'He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. 'No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' But Trump has changed his tune. 'Well I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,' he explained to US media in 2019. 'I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years … I was not a fan of his. That I can tell you.' The difference between the two interviews? Epstein's arrest and death. He was detained on child sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in early 2019. A few months later, he would be found dead in jail. The official cause: suicide. This timing was to prove pivotal. The 'Pizzagate' scandal was still thick in the air. US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had been falsely accused of leading a paedophile ring from the basement of a Washington DC family restaurant. That led a North Carolina man to grab his AR-15 assault rifle in a futile bid to 'rescue' the non-existent victims. And the 'QAnon' movement was growing. Epstein's death was deemed 'murder' and 'proof' of the machinations of the 'deep state'. And Trump was a noble warrior waging a secret war against paedophile elites. Now, the Trump-appointed chiefs of the Justice Department and FBI have confirmed that Epstein did indeed kill himself. To some, this is a betrayal. Trump and his followers have been promising a grand exposé since the very beginning. To others, it's the collapse of a rickety house of cards. It's the inevitable demise of a politically manipulated myth designed to win the presidency. So, what do we actually know? Who was Epstein? How did he die? What was his relationship with the likes of Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew – and Donald Trump? The coming storm 'I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is,' Trump declared in frustration late last week. But that same interest and fascination has been a central plank of his political campaigning for almost a decade. The withholding of court documents dubbed the Epstein files has long been cited as evidence of the 'deep state'. Now, Trump has dismissed their existence as a 'hoax'. 'And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama,' he declared last week. This was not the anticipated outcome. 'QAnon followers perceived Trump as a messianic figure working to expose this cabal in a climactic reckoning known as 'The Storm' – a moment when mass arrests would finally bring justice,' argues University of Dayton Associate Professor of Sociology, Art Jipson. 'They claimed that this moment would eventually bring about a 'Great Awakening' … a moment of mass realisation when people would 'wake up' to the truth about the 'deep state.' Now, that storm threatens to engulf Trump himself. President Trump never personally endorsed the QAnon movement. But many of his campaigners certainly did. Now, some of those hold positions of high office. Trump did, however, often retweet Q-related posts. He also posted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin with the motto: 'The Storm is Coming'. But his reluctance to release evidence relating to Epstein is just his latest failed revelation. Trump promised to blow open the JFK and RFK assassinations. But the thousands of pages released earlier this year show no evidence of a 60-year-old 'deep state' cover-up. Trump promised to reveal evidence of alien contact. Instead, his administration has been forced to explain away a spate of UFO scares as hobbyist drones, police helicopters, and scheduled airline flights. Without the Epstein files, there's little chance of finding a Satanic cult. Or a Mossad network. 'For some QAnon believers, this failure was a turning point: If Trump – once seen as the hero in the conspiracy narrative – would not or could not reveal the truth, then the 'deep state' must be more entrenched than imagined,' Jipson concludes. But the Epstein court evidence exists. Unconfirmed reports suggest investigators have amassed 100,000 files containing about 300,000 pages of testimony, bank transfers, phone records and correspondence. And given the size of Epstein's A-list social group, that could cause considerable embarrassment. Who was Jeffrey Epstein? Epstein was a social climber who rapidly became a centrepiece of the New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, social scenes in the 1990s. 'I invest in people, be it politics or science. It's what I do,' he told New York Magazine in 2002. Epstein was born in New York. He dropped out of university to become a math and physics teacher at one of the city's private schools. His big break came when one of his students introduced him to his father, an investment banker. Epstein went on to work on Wall Street for four years. Within five years, he was managing more than $US1billion through J. Epstein & Co. With success came reward. Epstein spent big. A large Manhattan residence. A mansion in Florida. A ranch in New Mexico. These were just the start of a worldwide portfolio of properties, including private islands in the US Virgin Islands. He didn't like appearing in public. But when he did, it was with someone like Eva Andersson (Miss Sweden) or the daughter of billionaire publisher Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine, on his shoulder. Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy charges when he flew back into New York from Paris on his private jet in early 2019. He was already a convicted sex offender. Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a 14-year-old girl. A police search of his Palm Beach property uncovered photographs of children throughout the mansion. And investigations revealed how each victim was used to recruit other vulnerable young girls. 'This was not a 'he said, she said' situation. This was 50-something 'shes' and one 'he' — and the 'shes' all basically told the same story,' former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald in 2018. But then federal prosecutor Alex Acosta negotiated a secret plea deal in a Florida court. This saw Epstein sentenced to 13 months of 'work-release' detention instead of a 45-year jail term. A formal FBI investigation was subsequently dismissed. When news of this deal broke following his second arrest in 2019, Acosta – then serving as White House Labour Secretary, appointed by President Trump – was forced to resign. Epstein remained unrepentant. 'What can I say, I like young girls,' Epstein told New York magazine columnist Michael Wolff in 2007. He insisted the girls (under the legal age of consent) had consented to sex. 'I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an 'offender,'' he told the New York Post in 2011. 'It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.' Who did Epstein know? One of Epstein's high-flying partners drew particular attention from MAGA and QAnon. In 2002, he flew former President Bill Clinton, comedian Chris Tucker and actor Kevin Spacey to Africa. Flight logs record Clinton flying on Epstein's planes some 26 times. And his private Boeing 727 was dubbed 'Lolita Express'. 'Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of 21st Century science,' Clinton crowed to New York Magazine. 'I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratisation, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/Aids.' Then there was the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. He had been a friend of Epstein's since the early 1990s. They'd been seen together at exotic destinations including St Tropez and Thailand. The Prince was also photographed talking to Epstein in New York's Central Park in December 2010 – shortly after he had been released from custody. In 2022, Prince Andrew paid millions to settle a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts. She claimed to have been ordered by Epstein to have sex with the Prince three times – in London, New York and on Epstein's private Caribbean Island. Prince Andrew maintains the accusations are 'false and without any foundation', insisting he never had 'any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts'. And then there's Donald Trump. Epstein told columnist Michael Wolff in a 2011 interview that he 'was Donald's closest friend for 10 years'. They had been dining partners at both Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and Epstein's Manhattan mansion. The pair had also hung out at Atlantic City casinos. Trump certainly appears to have made himself readily available to the high-flying financier. Epstein's personal address book, leaked to the media in 2009, reportedly contained 14 contact numbers for Trump, Melania, and members of his personal staff. But Trump and Epstein fell out in 2004. Both wanted to buy the same Florida ocean-side mansion. And it was Epstein who won the bitter bidding battle. Two weeks after the auction, Palm Beach police reportedly received a tip-off that underage girls had been seen entering Epstein's home. But it wasn't until the following year that the parents of a 14-year-old girl stepped forward, and investigations began in earnest. The Trump connections According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump-Epstein friendship was in full flight by 2003. That's when Maxwell reportedly assembled a leather-bound 50th Birthday tribute book for Epstein. One of the entries was allegedly submitted by Trump. The WSJ describes it as a sketch of a naked woman. The signature 'Donald' appears where her pubic hair would be. And the typewritten dialogue depicts a conversation between the two men: 'Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything. 'Donald: Yes, there is, but I won't tell you what it is. 'Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is …' The tribute reportedly concludes: 'A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret' President Trump has called the document 'fake', 'false', and 'malicious'. 'I'm gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,' he said. But Trump and Epstein have a history. They were seen together at beauty pageants, cheerleader parades and beauty contests. A 1992 'calendar girl' competition, involving more than 20 contestants at Mar-a-Lago, had only two guests: Trump and Epstein. Recently released photos reveal that Epstein was invited to Trump's second wedding (to Marla Maples) in December 1993. And flight logs show Trump flew seven times on Epstein's private jets between 1993 and 1997. Epstein boasted to Wolff that the first time Trump 'slept with' Melania was 'on my plane'. Trump was famously caught on tape in 2005 claiming that he could grab women 'by the p***y', stating that 'when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything'. Since becoming President in 2019, more than a dozen women have come forward with allegations ranging from walking into dressing rooms unannounced to rape. One, calling herself 'Jane Doe' and 'Katie Johnson', alleged she was repeatedly raped in Manhattan by Epstein and Trump when she was just 13-years-old. She filed – and dropped – her lawsuit in 2016. Trump has denied all the allegations and accused the women of being political pawns in efforts to undermine his presidency. But Trump is also indirectly entangled with Prince Andrew's Epstein scandal. Virginia Robers submitted in a court filing that she was just 16 and working as a pool attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 when she was recruited by Maxwell to act as Epstein's masseuse. That, she said, entrapped her in his sex ring. Roberts (Giuffre) died by suicide in April this year, aged 41. What next? 'I keep hearing about some of the Jeffrey Epstein clients' names being released today,' Donald Trump Jr posted to the X social media site in January 2024, 'But I'd be willing to bet that something happens between now and then that prevents those names from ever coming out.' The inference was aimed at then-President Joe Biden and the 'deep state'. But, little more than a year later, his prophecy would come true through his own father. 'It's sitting on my desk right now to review,' Donald Trump's personally appointed Attorney-General, lobbyist and lawyer Pam Bondi, declared in February. 'That's been a directive by President Trump.' Expectations were running high. Now, her Justice Department says it doesn't exist. The Justice Department and FBI released roughly 11 hours of video showing the lead-up to the discovery of Epstein's body to dispel suspicions of foul play. But it only made matters worse. Time stamps reveal part of the recording is missing, as it jumps from 11:58pm to midnight in a single frame. 'The conspiracy theories just aren't true, never have been,' FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted earlier this month. But the Trump-appointed lawyer and MAGA campaigner was contradicting himself. In 2023, he insisted Epstein's 'black book' was 'under direct control of the Director of the FBI'. And he loudly complained at delays in the Epstein files' release: 'What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can't get the list? Put on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are.' His FBI Deputy Director, former MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino, finds himself similarly wrong-footed. 'Folks, the Epstein client list is a huge deal because it speaks to an enormous problem we have in this country,' Bongino told his audience last September. 'It is that there is a connected class of insiders that feel that they can get away with anything because they can.' Patel and Bongino now find themselves walking a fine line. On one side is Donald Trump. On the other are the MAGA supporters they rode into office. 'Do you think that myself, Bongino and others would participate in hiding information about Epstein's grotesque activities?' Patel told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast last month. 'Or do you think we would also participate in not prosecuting people we had evidence to prosecute people on? 'But the problem is, there's been, like, 15 years of people coming in and creating fictions about this that doesn't exist.' Now, the 47th President has ordered his Attorney-General to quash the controversy by releasing all grand jury testimony relating to Epstein. But this bid was overruled by a US District Judge on Thursday on the basis the demand failed to meet required legal criteria. Meanwhile, the Congress House Committee on Oversight voted Thursday to subpoena the Department of Justice to hand over investigation documents. Several key Republican members supported the move. And, on Friday, Epstein's convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, met with her lawyer and Trump's Deputy Attorney General Todd Blance for six-hours of talks. Congress has also voted to summon Maxwell to testify before the House.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
Woman at centre of Coldplay kiss cam scandal resigns
The woman at the centre of the Coldplay kiss cam scandal has resigned. Kristin Cabot, who was caught on the jumbotron canoodling with her boss Andy Byron at the UK band's Boston concert last Wednesday, has stepped down as the HR chief at Astronomer, a job she held for less than a year. The New York-based tech company confirmed the news in a statement on Thursday, US time. 'I can confirm that Kristin Cabot is no longer with Astronomer, she has resigned,' a spokesperson for the company told Page Six. It comes days after Byron also resigned from his job as the firm's CEO. 'As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' a rep for the tech company said on Saturday. 'Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.' After the pair infamously scrambled to hide from the concert kiss cam, and subsequently made headlines around the world, Astronomer announced it was launching a formal investigation into the scandal and placed Cabot and Byron on leave. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin was left bewildered by their actions on the big screen, joking onstage the pair were either 'really shy or having an affair', as details swiftly emerged about their respective marriages. Byron, who is estimated to have a net worth of $A76 million, is married to a woman named Megan Kerrigan Byron, who has since removed his last name from her Facebook and deactivated her social media accounts. She is yet to comment publicly. Cabot, for her part, appears to be married to Privateer Rum's CEO Andrew Cabot, since they share the same last name and are co-owners of the same house in New Hampshire. She divorced her first husband, Kenneth Thornby, in 2022, according to Massachusetts court records. Neither Byron nor Cabot have commented on the affair allegations. Meanwhile, the fate of both their respective marriages remains unknown. Cabot was hired as the company's human resources officer in November 2024, while Byron held the position of CEO from July 2023.
ABC News
4 days ago
- ABC News
Jeffrey Epstein survivor says it's time for the truth to finally be told
Danielle Bensky was waiting for the bathroom at a New York nightclub when a woman asked if she'd be interested in massaging her client — a wealthy financier named Jeffrey Epstein. The then 17-year-old was an aspiring ballerina working odd jobs to get herself through ballet school and hoping to earn some extra cash. "He's lovely, he has a big mansion, he's very wealthy," Ms Bensky recalled being told. With the impression there was nothing untoward about the opportunity, the teenager and a friend headed to Epstein's Upper East Side mansion. What began as a "casual meeting" within a couple months spiralled into Ms Bensky being sexually abused multiple times a week for more than a year by the notorious paedophile. Now 38, Ms Bensky, one of hundreds of women to have suffered abuse by the convicted sex offender, is speaking out as the Epstein scandal dogs the White House and grips the nation. At the time of the abuse in 2004, Ms Bensky's mother had been diagnosed with a brain tumour and "the survival rate was not great", Ms Bensky said. Under the impression that Epstein had an understanding of neuroscience, she showed him her mother's brain scans, hoping he could help. Instead, he gave her an ultimatum. "He sat me down and said, 'OK, so what will you do for this?' And my heart sank and I asked him what he meant. "He's like, 'You have two choices, basically you can recruit and bring me more girls or … you're going to have to do something for this,' and that's when the sexual abuse started." Ms Bensky says Epstein used her mother's diagnosis as leverage to repeatedly sexually abuse her and threatened to withhold treatment if she told anyone. She said he also pressured her to recruit other girls for him, something she said she refused to do. "He had made a comment about, 'Well I know all the top surgeons, I know the anaesthesiologists, I know all these people and I can do something wonderful, and I can make sure she gets the best care, or I can make sure that that doesn't happen for her and I can actually take the care away.'" Epstein never followed through with helping her mum receive treatment. In 2005, her mother had a 19-hour brain operation. Once she was recovering at home, Ms Bensky stopped going to Epstein's New York mansion. The disgraced financier died in a prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial charged with sex trafficking minors. His death has been the subject of myriad conspiracy theories and has caused a furore among many of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters, who have long demanded answers surrounding Epstein's death and criminal operation. Mr Trump, who committed to releasing the Epstein files during his presidential campaign, has lashed out at some of his supporters, accusing them of falling for the "Epstein hoax". Survivors like Ms Bensky find those comments, and the ensuing politicisation of the case, offensive. "It's a circus, it's become this show on the world stage." Ms Bensky wants to see more information made public. "The files are a representation of the trial … and we didn't get that. But we do have the files," she said. "So that feels like the piece of closure that we're lacking right now. "He had a full staff, and you just knew that there were people watching you at all times. "I'd love to know what this whole structure was, and how he got away with it for so long." For years, supporters and allies of the president have amplified scepticism and claims of a government cover-up to protect those associated with Epstein. Factions of the president's MAGA base, as well as some of his Republican colleagues, have maintained calls for classified documents and a rumoured "client list" to be released to the public. US Attorney-General Pam Bondi invited a group of conservative influencers to the White House in February where they were handed binders labelled "The Epstein Files Phase I". But much of what was inside the binders was already on the public record. One of those influencers who visited Washington DC was conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler. "I was one of the 'new media' figures … who have been put through the ringer for Attorney-General Pam Bondi's gross incompetence and her severe lack of judgement in the way that she rolled that out," Ms Wheeler said. The Department of Justice and FBI later released a memo that said their investigation had concluded there was "no incriminating "client list" and that "further disclosure would not be appropriate or warranted". Now Ms Wheeler wants to see the president sack the attorney-general for her "botched rollout" of the Epstein files. "It's time to rectify this issue, which is why I said [the president] should not tolerate Pam Bondi's behaviour anymore," she said. "The base feels stung because we have not been told the truth and we associate the Epstein files now with the question of, are we going to get the justice we voted for? "The American people feel that this is injustice. They feel that they are being played. They feel there is dishonesty afoot. And of course that triggers us because we have been harmed by politicians doing this before. "What we do as President Trump's base is, a true friend tells you the truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable, even when that truth might have consequences." Author and Washington Post reporter Sarah Ellison described the current Epstein controversy as "an own goal by the Trump administration". "To say there's nothing to see here and you're not going to see anything else … That created an absolute sense of betrayal and that people had been lied to," Ms Ellison said. The president has faced growing political backlash with mounting calls for greater transparency coming from some Republican colleagues, and his own daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. With Democrats animated on the issue, the president reversed course — directing Ms Bondi to seek the release of grand jury testimony stemming from the prosecution of Epstein. But the move was blocked by a federal judge in Florida, citing legal guidelines governing grand jury secrecy. The Justice Department is continuing a push for grand jury transcripts to be released in the state of New York. Officials have also reached out to the lawyers for Epstein's co-conspirator and enabler Ghislaine Maxwell to see if she would speak with prosecutors. In a move that has split Republicans and outraged Democrats, the Republican leadership also moved to close Congress early to prevent a vote on releasing more files relating to Epstein. Ms Wheeler said only "radical transparency" will satisfy the president's base. "They owe it to the American people to give us every bit of Epstein file information that they have, period," she said. "There should not be any more gatekeeping on this. "I don't care about the political implications of anything else in those files, release them all." Mr Trump has escalated his legal attacks on the news media and recently settled lawsuits with CBS and America's ABC for tens-of-millions of dollars. The president also turned on Rupert Murdoch, suing the media mogul and his newspaper The Wall Street Journal for $US10 billion ($15 billion) after it published a story scrutinising his years-long friendship with Epstein. The Wall Street Journal reported Maxwell had collated a series of letters for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 which included one bearing Mr Trump's name. The article also stated the letter included a lewd drawing of a naked woman which was signed "may every day be a wonderful secret". Mr Trump, who only in February called Mr Murdoch a "legend", denies ever writing the letter and claims it is a fake. Ms Ellison, who previously worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal before publishing a book that detailed the inside politics at the Murdoch-owned paper, said the legal action sends a message. "It's the most significant media lawsuit that he brought because Rupert Murdoch is the most significant media mogul in this era," she said. "This is a sometimes ally, this is someone who has essentially, from a media perspective, delivered Donald Trump to us, and now for this to be the person and the institution that Trump is suing, it means that no-one's really safe." Despite being hit with a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, Ms Ellison said the paper was showing no signs of backing away from its coverage of Mr Trump and Epstein. "I think Rupert is one of these people who loves nothing more than talking about the news with his editors … but I don't think that he dictates the coverage to them at the Journal." The WSJ has since published another exclusive story reporting that Ms Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, told the president his name was among many mentioned in files about Epstein. The White House has labelled it another fake news story. Away from the dizzying pace of news developments surrounding the case, survivors at the centre of it, like Ms Bensky, persist. She returned to dancing as a choreographer after taking a hiatus to cope with the trauma of her abuse. "It was really a struggle for me to come back to the leotard for a while," she said. "This is a human story. It's not about politics, it's not divisive, it's just to be seen and heard and finding accountability." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
