http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4468974/Ex-Marine-fought-man-flight-says-PTSD.htmlPassenger Ryan Humphreys says that the fight kicked off after he saw the man, who he believed to be an active or retired military member, 'rambling' to other passengers and 'smothering' the woman sitting next him as he leaned over to talk to her partner.
'I would guess he has PTSD or maybe off his meds,' Humphreys, who now works for the US Department of Defense in Okinawa, told TMZ. 'He didn't strike me as being drunk.'
The other passenger was thrown off the plane in Tokyo and was arrested after allegedly putting an airline employee into a chokehold.
Humphreys did not press charges against the man, but has now explained what exactly happened on the flight.
He said of the incident: 'The guy in front of me - the guy in the red shirt - just starts rambling on. It sounded like he was talking to everybody.
'I'm looking around to see if anyone else is listening to this guy. Like no one is. He gets up out of his seat and he starts looking around. He turns around and looks at me and naturally I'm looking straight forward.
'I didn't say anything to the guy, and he's just like, 'What are you looking at', you know, 'I'll kill you', blah blah blah.
'I'm just like 'Hey, it's OK, it's OK', and asked me if I lived in Vegas, so he has something to do with Vegas, I don't know.
'The couple sits down next to the guy. It's a three-seat row, he's on the window, the girl is in the middle and then her husband or boyfriend. Next thing you know, he's leaning over and he's up all in the girl's face and he's rambling, kind of what he was doing with me.
'And he starts to get physical with the man. It looked like he was trying to choke him out with a headlock with his hands. He's like smothering the woman because she's in the middle. That's when I intervened.
'He was either active military or a veteran. When his shirt got ripped I could see all his ink or whatever - I'm ex-Marine.
'I would guess he has PTSD or maybe off his meds. He didn't strike me as being drunk.'
During video of the fight, stunned passengers can be heard begging the pair to 'please stop' as a baby cried in the background.
One shouted, 'Someone help! This guy is crazy,' as airline staff tried to break them up.
When the man in the Hawaiian shirt walks away, the other shouts 'Get this guy off this plane.'
Just when the brawl appeared to have stopped, the man in the bright shirt charged back down the aisle and continued throwing punches.
ANA staff eventually had to break up the men. The red-shirted man then shakes off the female flight attendant's attempts to restrain him and continues to throw punches.
Japan Today reported that a 44-year-old American was charged with assault after he allegedly choked an ANA employee on a plane on Monday night.
An ANA spokesman told the paper that the brawl broke out just before the plane was due to depart.