AUTHOR: SHANNON BARBER NOVEMBER 29, 2014 8:14 PM
A Virgin America flight en route to Los Angeles wound up landing in Nebraska for a most peculiar reason: one of the passengers on board wouldn’t stop masturbating in his seat. Gawker reports that 26-year-old Doug Adams was aboard the flight, which was set to go from Boston to Los Angeles, when he began masturbating in his seat and yelling at the woman in the seat next to him.
Image Credit: Gawker, screengrab NBC
FAA officials dubbed the incident a “medical emergency,” and the flight landed briefly in Nebraska so that Adams could be removed. Also, aside from the fervent masturbation, it appears that Mr. Adams also felt a pressing need to exit the plane mid-flight, as he was also reported to have been seen frantically attempting to leave via the emergency exit. Another passenger said:
He at that point was fidgeting and began to remove the plastic covering from the emergency exit door and tried to pull to open the door. Fortunately there were a couple of Boston police officers on the flight that were there at that point to help as well.
It was fortunate indeed that there was help available. That same passenger filmed Adams’ exit from the plane in handcuffs. Other people who witnessed the ordeal say that Adams was wearing a hospital bracelet.
Now, as bizarre — and even a little bit amusing — as this story is, perhaps the most interesting detail is the hospital bracelet. I imagine that it never occurred to anyone that Doug Adams may have just been released from — or even escaped from — a psychiatric unit. After all, most 26-year-olds do not masturbate in public, especially not on a cramped airplane while yelling at, and terrifying, other passengers. If that is indeed the case, it is just another story that highlights the abysmal state of mental healthcare in America. If Mr. Adams is indeed mentally ill, he needs a doctor, not a set of handcuffs and a jail cell.
