(CNN) An American Airlines flight was forced to make an unscheduled stop after a male passenger became unruly, punching seats, yelling at other passengers and smoking cigarettes.

Originating in Phoenix, Flight 2408 was headed to Minneapolis on Friday when the passenger became disruptive about one hour after takeoff. Passenger Jim Dickey, who was traveling for a convention, said the man began yelling and making threats toward the other passengers.

"He punched the seat in front of him and the lady screamed," Dickey told CNN.

Dickey said the pilot announced the flight was diverting about 20 minutes after the incident began. The flight landed in Denver and the man was removed from the plane by law enforcement.

"You could tell by the sound that the plane started descending pretty quickly after the flight attendants started to notice" what was going on, he said.

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