United plane turns back 3 hours into flight after a 'disruptive' passenger sat in a crew seat and got in a shouting match with a flight attendant, report says

• A flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv, Israel, turned back three hours after it took off.
• United Airlines told Insider that the plane turned back because of a "disruptive passenger."

A United Airlines flight from Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, turned back hours after it took off following an incident involving an unruly passenger.

United Airlines Flight 90, which departed from Newark early Sunday morning, reversed course about three hours into its journey and headed back to the US, according to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar 24.

According to an eyewitness, who spoke to the Israeli media outlet Ynet, the disagreement was over an Israeli man choosing to sit in a seat assigned to crew members while he waited to use the bathroom.

The eyewitness — identified only as Sholomit — said a flight attendant and the seated passenger then got into a shouting match.

"Crew members told him that if he did not return to his seat, the plane would be turned back to New York," Sholomit said, adding that the passenger did not appear to believe the threat, per Ynet.

A spokesperson for United Airlines confirmed to Insider in an email that the flight returned to Newark due to a "disruptive passenger."

The United Airlines spokesperson said that law enforcement met the aircraft and removed the passenger.

The airline did not answer follow-up questions from Insider about the specifics of the passenger's behavior or why the decision was made to return to Newark.

Passengers onboard only found out that they were returning to Newark by looking at the flight map on their screens, Ynet reported.

—Jeff Hunt (@jeffhunt) April 23, 2023

A video shared on Twitter by Jeff Hunt, who was on the flight, appeared to show the passenger being escorted off the plane.

Hunt wrote in another Twitter post that the passenger was later seen wandering around the airport "pleading his case."

In a phone conversation with Insider, Hunt said that the passenger was trying to tell people that he hadn't been physical and that the airline's response was an overreaction.

"He just kind of hung around everybody, which was bizarre and bold," Hunt said. "If I was escorted off an airplane I would have hung my head in shame and disappeared, but he spent four hours talking to people."

Once the plane returned to Newark, passengers disembarked and their trips were postponed.

Hunt said there was a "lot of anger and frustration" from passengers. He added that he and many others waited in line for almost four hours to get hotel vouchers from the airline.

United Airlines said that a new flight was scheduled for Sunday evening so that passengers could make their way to Israel.

In January 2022, Insider reported on another United Airlines flight to Tel Aviv from Newark that turned back mid-flight, after two passengers reportedly assigned themselves seats in business class and started a "riot."