An unruly passenger prompted a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas to divert to Los Angeles Wednesday morning. 
 
 The airline confirms HA7 departed Las Vegas at 8:44 a.m. local time and was about an hour into the flight, just past Los Angeles, when the crew was notified of an unruly passenger. 
 
 The airline said in a statement: “Our flight crews are responsible for the safety and comfort of all passengers on board our flights and the Captain in charge of the aircraft is entrusted with determining when it’s best to deplane an anxious or unruly passenger. Diverting a fight is clearly not our first choice, but our crew felt it was necessary to divert to Los Angeles and deplane the passenger before beginning to fly over the Pacific Ocean.” 
 
 Los Angeles Airport Police and the FBI met the aircraft at the gate. Officials said there was a dispute between a 66-year-old male passenger and the flight crew over the charge for a blanket. 
 
 “The male passenger had asked for a blanket because he was cold and was told there was a $12 fee that accompanied the blanket,” said Rob Pedregon, Los Angeles Airport Police. 
 
 Pedregon said the passenger “made a statement that he wanted to take somebody behind the woodshed over this, which prompted the flight crew to contact the captain who then in turn diverted the aircraft to LAX.” 
 
 Once at the airport, the passenger was escorted to the ticketing area. He was not arrested. Officials say there was no credible or direct threat made, and no crime was committed. 
 
 “(The crew) took offense to the statement that he made. Maybe they felt uncomfortable with it, which is well within their rights to divert the plane and refuse service,” Pedregon said. 
 
 We’ve learned that incidents involving unruly passengers happen regularly nationwide. Last year, there were 79 incidents, and in each of the previous four years, more than a hundred. 
 
 Passengers on Wednesday’s flight had mixed reactions about the delay. 
 
 Dallas resident Claudia Rodriguez said the airline did not provide much information during the incident. 
 
 “He looked like he was drunk. He just looked like he was a drunken person,” she told KHON2. “The thing we were most upset about was when we got off the plane, when they deplaned us after sitting for an hour, we talked to one of the staff and we asked them what we would do next, and we were not given a lot of information. They told us to go ahead and seek other options, so we went ahead and bought another ticket for my husband and I and we’re not going to get a refund on that one. We ended up losing $600.” 
 
 Passenger Bianca Moors said, “I’m okay with this. They’re doing it to protect the passengers as well as the crew, because I think this is a very expensive stop for Hawaiian.” 
 
 HA7 departed Los Angeles at 2:15 p.m. local time, and should arrive in Honolulu at 7:07 p.m. local time. ||||| A Hawaiian Airlines passenger got booted off a flight Wednesday after he threatened to "take someone behind the woodshed" and refused to pay $12 for a blanket, officials said. 
 
 The incident began after the plane took off from Las Vegas, and a 66-year-old passenger complained that he was cold, according to Officer Rob Pedregon, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Airport Police Department. 
 
 He asked for a blanket and was told it would cost $12, the officer said. The man became upset and said he shouldn’t have to pay because it was cold, he said. 
 
 So he asked to speak with the airline’s corporate office. During an in-flight call with company representatives, the man allegedly said, “I would like to take someone behind the woodshed for this.” 
 
 After the man’s comment, the flight was diverted to LAX due to “an unruly passenger,” and airport police were called, Pedregon said. 
 
 Police and federal authorities met with the flight crew and passenger when the plane landed at 10:20 a.m. 
 
 Officers listened to the man’s complaints and then sent him on his way. Police determined there was no criminal threat, Pedregon said. 
 
 The man managed to catch another flight, he said. 
 
 veronica.rocha@latimes.com 
 
 Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA 
 
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 Stray bullet from gang shooting blamed in death of Escondido woman driving home from church ||||| A man who had been arrested at LAX airport early Friday morning was later subdued after causing a “disturbance” that alarmed flight attendants and an off-duty LAPD officer on an American Airlines flight to Honolulu. 
 
 Interested in Airlines? Add Airlines as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Airlines news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
 
 American Airlines said in a statement that law enforcement met the plane upon landing in Honolulu following the "disturbance" on the flight. The plane was escorted by two F-22 fighter jets for the duration of the flight following the disturbance, U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. 
 
 F22's taking off from Honolulu to escort American Airlines flight 31 #Hawaii pic.twitter.com/8cauepQ7Yt — Anthony Quintano ?? (@AnthonyQuintano) May 19, 2017 
 
 Special Agents of the FBI Honolulu Field Office and local police responded ahead of the flight’s arrival and took a passenger into custody. The Department of Homeland Security is continuing to monitor all flights "out of an abundance of caution," it said. 
 
 About halfway through the flight, the passenger, identified as 25-year-old Turkish national Anil Uskanil, was headed towards the front of the plane. He had a blanket over his head and was mumbling, witnesses said. 
 
 It’s unclear how far towards the front of the plane he made it. Some eyewitnesses told ABC News that he tried to push his way through first class to the bathrooms, but was blocked by the beverage cart and a passenger. 
 
 Earlier on Friday, a source at the TSA told ABC News that the passenger was waiting for the bathroom near the cockpit when a flight attendant asked him to sit down. He had a laptop with him and appeared to try the cockpit door before he was subdued, the source said. 
 
 American Airlines has stated that he was "moving towards the cockpit." 
 
 But Paul Delacourt, special agent in charge at the FBI's Honolulu office, confirmed Friday night that the cockpit was not breached, nor did Uskanil even make it to the cockpit door. 
 
 After the disturbance, Uskanil was escorted back to his seat, where he was restrained with duct tape, according to witnesses. At no time during the incident was there any violence or significant struggle, witnesses said. He was later taken into custody for a medical evaluation. 
 
 LAX Police told ABC News that at 2:45 a.m. they received a radio call of a passenger moving through a Terminal 5 security door, which led to the airfield ramp. Uskanil, a ticketed passenger on an American Airlines flight who had passed through TSA security, was detained after being spotted. Police determined he had been drinking, but did not meet criteria for public drunkenness. Uskanil was arrested for misdemeanor trespassing, cited, given a pending court date, then released from custody. 
 
 American Airlines says Uskanil then went back thru a TSA checkpoint in Terminal 4 where his flight to Honolulu was leaving from and boarded the flight. The airline also says that he had bought his ticket for the Honolulu flight shortly after midnight at the airport ticket counter. 
 
 Law enforcement is now responding to analyze a suspicious item associated with Uskanil, a source told ABC News. The FBI's Delacourt, though, said no explosives were found onboard. 
 
 Flight 31 from Los Angeles landed safely at 11:35 a.m. local time, according to American Airlines. All passengers are off the plane and safe, and operations at the airport have resumed as normal. 
 
 A total of 181 passengers and six crew members were on board, according to the airline. 
 
 The incident is under investigation. Halting of all ground movements on the airfield as the flight came in caused a 30-minute backlog, the Department of Transportation said in a statement. The DOT expected the backlog to be resolved by the end of peak travel in the afternoon. 
 
 ABC News' Matt Gutman, Erin Dooley, Luis Martinez and Alex Stone contributed to this report. ||||| It may have only begun as a demand for a humble bag of nibbles, but the threatening behaviour of one unruly passenger could have gone on to cost an airline £350,000 a court has heard. 
 
 The full cost of diverting a packed transatlantic airliner emerged as a judge heard how a plane had to make an unscheduled stop when a passenger repeatedly demanded bags of nuts. 
 
 Alarmed by the passenger’s allegedly aggressive behaviour, the pilot decided to touch down in Belfast, after first dumping 50,000 litres of aviation fuel to make the stop. 
 
 Once on the ground, the 282 passengers had to wait almost 24 hours to take off again because getting under way immediately would have broken the crew’s legal flying hours limit. Almost all the passengers had to sleep on the terminal floor. 
 
 Jeremiah Mathis Thede, from California, appeared at Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with endangering the safety of the aircraft, disruptive behaviour on board and common assault against a stewardess. 
 
 The court heard the United Airlines plane was en route from Rome to Chicago on Saturday evening when crew and other passengers raised concerns about the defendant. 
 
 A constable with the airport constabulary told the court the trouble began when Mr Thede allegedly got up 15 minutes after take-off, with the seat belt lights still on, and demanded "nuts or crackers". 
 
 He said Mr Thede, from The Alameda in Berkeley, California, refused to sit back down again until he obtained a snack. 
 
 A member of crew managed to "appease" the passenger by giving him some nuts and Mr Thede then retook his seat. 
 
 But ten minutes later he got up and demanded more. Crew replied he would only get another snack if there were packets left over when other travellers had been served. 
 
 The policeman said Thede retorted: "I can have as much nuts and crackers as I f****** want." 
 
 Fellow passengers were also concerned by his behaviour, claiming he kept getting up and down from his seat, repeatedly opened the overhead baggage lockers, blocked the aisles and made numerous trips to the lavatories. 
 
 The captain asked a number of men to sit around the passenger in case he became violent. However, the constable acknowledged that "no one was struck" during the flight. 
 
 Mr Thede's "erratic" behaviour prompted the captain to turn round when he was already over the Atlantic, and head back to land Belfast International Airport, around 20 miles from the city centre. 
 
 Asked by a prosecution barrister to assess the cost of the incident, the constable replied: 
 
 "It would be upwards of 300,000 to 350,000 pounds. There is compensation for passengers. There were 269 passengers lying sleeping on the floor of the terminal because there were no hotel rooms found for them." 
 
 Mr Thede, denies the offences and told police the pilot had overreacted. 
 
 The constable said: "He said it wasn't him, there was a conspiracy theory against him, people were picking on him," he said. 
 
 His solicitor said alcohol was not a factor, as a police doctor had examined him upon arrest and deemed him "fit to be interviewed". 
 
 "His position is he's done nothing wrong and effectively this is an overreaction by staff in the plane, those in charge," said the lawyer. 
 
 The airport police constable objected to the granting of bail, on the ground that the accused could abscond the jurisdiction. 
 
 The defendant was remanded in custody to appear before magistrates’ next week. Judge Christopher Holmes also ordered a psychiatric examination.
– An outraged passenger caused a plane to be diverted—all over a $12 blanket fee. The brouhaha began shortly after the Honolulu-bound Hawaiian Airlines flight left Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, KHON reports. The 66-year-old man complained of being cold, asked for a blanket, learned the price, and demanded to talk to the airline's corporate office. During the in-flight call he placed, he allegedly threatened to "take someone behind the woodshed," an LA Airport Police rep tells the Los Angeles Times. Though officials say no "credible threat" was made, the flight crew's discomfort led them to alert the captain. "Our crew felt it was necessary to divert to Los Angeles and deplane the passenger before beginning to fly over the Pacific Ocean," says the airline in a statement. The man was not charged with any offense and boarded another flight. The $12 blanket fee provoked protests on Twitter, with one man tweeting he'll put Hawaiian Airlines "atop my 'no fly' list." The pricey blanket has drawn criticism in the past from cold customers like this one.