Jonathan Cahn Identified as Passenger Attacked by “Duct-Taped Man” on Viral Flight 618

The mystery passenger at the center of the viral American Airlines Flight 618 incident has been identified as #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Cahn.

As Charisma previously reported, the Dallas-Fort Worth-to-Newark flight was diverted to Baltimore Sept. 3 after passenger Arthur Lundeen, 67, allegedly became disruptive and violent. Lundeen was ultimately restrained with duct tape and zip ties before being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and second-degree assault. But amid the viral reports of yelling, chaos and an outburst involving Jesus and hell, one central figure remained unidentified: the passenger seated directly beside him.

Now, Cahn says that passenger was him.

“I was the unidentified passenger,” Cahn reveals. “And I was actually attacked 30,000 ft in the sky. I was attacked on that plane.”

Cahn says he had been seated beside Lundeen for hours before the situation spiraled into the confrontation that would eventually make national headlines. What began as an ordinary encounter ended with Cahn being threatened, struck and pulled into a physical struggle aboard the aircraft.

At one point, Cahn says Lundeen reached across and put his hands around his neck in what appeared at first to be a joking imitation of a chokehold. Later, however, Cahn says Lundeen issued a chilling antisemitic threat.

“I will punch your [expletive] Jewish face in,” Cahn recalls him saying.

Then came the physical attack.

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“Then, he starts hitting me,” Cahn says.

Cahn says Lundeen struck him in the chest and moved toward his face as though attempting to provoke a fight. Rather than retaliate, Cahn says he restrained himself and called to the flight attendants for help.

But the confrontation wasn’t finished.

Cahn says he eventually decided to get out of his seat while carrying his laptop. As he began to move into the aisle, he says Lundeen suddenly lunged toward him and the computer.

“He grabs the laptop violently trying to wrest it out of my hand,” Cahn says.

The two struggled over the computer in the aisle, with Cahn describing himself as pulling with all his strength while Lundeen allegedly attempted to wrench it away. Around them, passengers watched in shock as the situation continued escalating and the aircraft prepared to make an emergency landing.

Then Cahn says he was injured.

About a month earlier, Cahn had hurt his left shoulder and arm while playing racquetball with his sons. He says the initial injury had felt as though his shoulder and arm were dislocated. After weeks of recovery, Cahn says that very morning in Dallas was the first time he felt as though the injury was finally gone.

During what Cahn described as Lundeen’s “last surge of anger,” however, he says the passenger grabbed that same arm and pulled it. Cahn says the force of the encounter reinjured his left arm, leaving his shoulder in severe pain and feeling as though it had been dislocated again.

Other passengers soon intervened. Cahn says several men moved in to help, and Lundeen was ultimately restrained to his seat with duct tape as Flight 618 descended into Baltimore. Cahn remembers the entire cabin becoming silent as passengers watched the scene unfold.

“The whole plane is silent, staring, trying to see what’s happening,” he says.

After the aircraft landed, Cahn says federal authorities boarded the plane, spoke with him and obtained his contact information. Lundeen was removed from the aircraft.

Yet another striking moment came after the chaos had subsided.

Cahn says one of the men who had stepped in to help approached him afterward and offered to sit beside him for the remainder of the journey. The man, who Cahn says turned out to be a fellow believer, then offered an unexpected interpretation of what had just happened.

“You were being tested,” Cahn recalls the man telling him. “God was testing you.”

Another passenger approached Cahn after witnessing the encounter and recognized him from his ministry.

“You’re on television and the internet,” Cahn recalls the passenger telling him. “I watch you every day.”

Cahn’s response?

“Well, now you watched me in person.”

But according to Cahn, the physical confrontation is still not the entire story of what happened aboard Flight 618.

“There’s more to this story than the media will ever tell you or know,” he says.

What happened in the hours and moments before that explosion, and what Cahn says caused the atmosphere between the two men to suddenly change, reveals another dimension to the viral Flight 618 story.

Prepared by Charisma Media Staff.