Guy on Plane Decks Kid Who Wouldn't Turn Off Phone

The 68-year-old 'felt he was protecting the entire plane'

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 29, 2010 11:18 AM CST
Updated Jan 2, 2011 10:56 AM CST

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Guy on Plane Decks Kid Who Wouldn't Turn Off Phone — In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 25, 2010, Joseph Erb demonstrates the iPhone at the Cherokee Nation Immersion School in Tahlequah, Okla., Cherokee children are asking for iPods and iPhones for Christmas this year, and their parents are having a much tougher time saying no than one might expect. ... (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Next time the flight attendants ask you to turn off your cell phone before takeoff, you better do it … because if you don’t, the 68-year-old guy sitting next to you just might punch you. Russell Miller, accused of doing just that, was arrested upon landing last week and charged with misdemeanor battery. He got into a fight with a 15-year-old boy on a Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Boise, CNN reports, and allegedly smacked the kid on the shoulder when he refused to turn off his iPhone.

Fellow passengers say the boy was playing games and listening to music at the time, KBOI2 adds. Miller “felt he was protecting the entire plane and its occupants,” a police officer says. "He punched him so hard there was a mark on the teen's arm.”
(More airplane stories.)

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