The religious discussion was the trigger for a chaotic incident on an American Airlines flight to New Jersey, which ended with a passenger strapped to his seat with duct tape and plastic zip ties. The out-of-control passenger was Arthur Layne Lundeen, a 67-year-old real estate agent from Arizona who was fired after the incident.
The disagreement began during a conversation about religion between Lundeen and the passenger seated next to him, identified as Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic rabbi and best-selling author, nicknamed the "Doomsday Prophet." Cahn revealed in a YouTube video that Lundeen began hurling racist and homophobic insults at a black flight attendant after shouting that "Jesus is garbage!"
Cahn stated he was attacked at 30,000 feet, with his laptop broken during the incident. The author described witnessing a sudden transformation in Lundeen, comparing the change to something that "took over" the passenger, who went from an extremely friendly person to someone dark in a fraction of a second.
