Flight attendant announced plane was going to crash, arrested

The incident began as the Chicago-bound flight was about to take off from Dallas, Texas. The flight attendant was giving preflight safety instructions and began speaking incoherently over the public address system, according to passengers debarking in Chicago.

She then said the plane had a mechanical difficulty and was going to return to the gate.

Other flight attendants interrupted her and said there were no problems and that passengers should prepare for takeoff.

They tried to calm their distraught colleague down, but she began ranting in incomplete sentences about the plane crashing, the bankruptcy and the terrorist attacks.

Some passengers took out their mobile phones and called police while others ended up restraining the disruptive attendant until airport police arrived.

"We were pretty frightened," said passenger Greg Lozano of Elmhurst, Illinois. "I was glad we weren't in the air. That was the primary thing I was thinking."

The flight attendant continued to scream as she was handcuffed and removed from the plane, passengers said.

Others said they thought she was having a mental breakdown, and one heard her say she was bipolar and hasn't been taking her medication.

"I will never get that sound of her screaming out of my head," said Bethany Christakos of Plano, Texas. "It took a good 10 minutes, it felt like, to get her off of the plane."

The flight was able to depart just an hour and twenty minutes late after the original crew was replaced. Two flight attendants were taken to a local hospital, an airline spokeswoman said.

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