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Professor Rhima Coleman (UM photo)
The mystery woman dragged off Delta Flight 2083 at Detroit Metro Airport by airport police like a sack of potatoes on Dec. 12 is identified as Rhima Coleman, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, Matt Durr of MLive reports. Coleman had refused to leave a San Diego-bound plane, authorities say.
Passengers told WDIV earlier this month that the woman ran past the gate agent without showing identification or a ticket. After she ignored Delta employees' requests to leave, airport police came. When she wouldn't walk out, officers dragged her off the plane.
She was arrested for disorderly conduct and failing to obey the flight crew's request to leave the aircraft. Some passengers videotaped the confrontation.
Coleman is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 18 at Romulus district court. The university tells MLive that her job status has not changed.
She joined the Ann Arbor faculty in August 2012. Coleman has a 2007 doctorate in bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a 1999 bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester, her LinkedIn page says.
