October 07 2025, 08:15 
Sporadically leaping from his seat between games of Candy Crush, an unhinged passenger on a flight from Minneapolis to Newark, New Jersey on Friday screamed that he was being “gang chased,” “cooked” and “radiated” by the LGBTQ+ community, all of which were causing him to develop cancer, he said.
The Sun Country flight from the Twin Cities to Newark Liberty International was forced to divert and land in Chicago on Friday morning after the passenger’s rant about the LGBTQ+ community turned to a prediction that “The plane is going down!”
Related
Gay flight attendant won his job back after getting fired for a hook-up
According to a witness, the man also said more than once, “Trump is here.”
Tracking data shows the flight left Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 7:13 a.m. and landed at Chicago O’Hare International Airport just over an hour later. A previously scheduled landing at 9:43 a.m. at Newark was delayed.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Seth Evans, a Minnesota native flying to his home in New York City, was sitting across the aisle from the unruly passenger. As the flight idled on the runway in Chicago, Evans recounted the hour-long outburst in a series of text messages reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Evans said the man was wearing “no less than 15 masks” stacked one on top of the other as he flipped out. The sporadic declarations about being persecuted by the LGBTQ+ community came as he stood up between his rounds playing the popular Candy Crush game on his phone.
The man had been acting erratically for the entire flight, Evans said, when the outbursts reached a crescendo and he screamed, “The plane is going down!”
That’s when pilots called in a mid-air emergency, and the plane made a last-minute diversion to Chicago. U.S. Marshals handcuffed the passenger and took him into custody without incident. The flight remained idled as marshals and police interviewed passengers about the disturbing incident.
A spokesperson for the Minneapolis-based Sun Country confirmed that the flight was diverted to Chicago “as a precaution in response to a disruptive passenger.”
“The flight landed without incident and the passenger in question was turned over to law enforcement and removed from the aircraft,” a statement said. “We appreciate our passengers’ patience during the interruption to their travels, and the flight is continuing on to Newark this morning.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.