Video Shows Passenger Duct-Taped To Seat After Alleged Confrontation With Flight Crew
Note: we are republishing this story, which originally made the news in July 2021, to highlight a recent surge in “unruly passenger” events per data from the FAA. More on that here: https://www.inquirer.com/business/airplane-rage-assault-violence-masks-covid-faa-20210926.html
An apparently unhinged passenger on American Airlines Flight 1774 was duct-taped to her seat after allegedly attacking the flight crew and trying to open the cabin door midflight.
In a video posted on social media, the gray-haired woman can be seen with silver duct tape over her mouth, with her body and arms seemingly taped to her seat.
She is heard screaming: “You! You! You!” as other passengers exited the flight with flight attendants calmly nodding their goodbyes.
The two-hour flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Charlotte, NC, departed at midnight after a three-hour delay. However, about an hour into the flight, all hell broke loose. In subsequent videos, @lol.ariee, the passenger who posted the original video, explained the chaotic scene.
Photo Credit: New York Post
She stated that about 1:30 a.m., flight attendants started turning on the lights, “and we see all flight attendants running up and down the aisles, frantically kind of like whispering to each other.”
She stated that the flight crew went on to lock bathrooms and started grabbing bags from overhead bins, but didn’t explain what was happening, she stated.
“It was just kind of like chaos and no one knows what’s going on,” she said.
Finally, according to her, the pilot was heard over the intercom asking passengers to remain in their seats, and referenced “a bad situation in the plane right now.”
Photo Credit: New York Post
“Then we’re gradually starting to hear more and more screaming, and we’re like, ‘Wait a minute,’” she said.
When they were about to land, a flight attendant sitting near them explained that a woman “had an outburst and like, had the urge to get off the plane. And she was saying, ‘I need to get off this plane,’ and she went up to the exits and started banging on the doors, saying, ‘You need to let me off this plane!’”
“I guess it took all five flight attendants to subdue her and like literally take her down so,” she stated. “They pretty much took her down, put her in the seat and duct taped her.”
American Airlines confirmed the incident, telling The Post that the woman had assaulted and bitten a flight attendant after she “attempted to open the forward boarding door” and had been restrained “for the safety and security of other customers and our crew.”
Photo Credit: New York Post
The flight was met by emergency personnel on the ground in Charlotte, and the woman was taken to a local hospital, the airline stated.
She was placed on American Airline’s “internal” no fly list pending an investigation.
Sources: New York Post
