Passenger Duct-Taped to Seat after Attacking Crew Member

Dallas, TX (WorkersCompensation.com) – An unruly airplane passenger was pinned down and duct-taped to his seat after he attacked a flight crew member and tried to open one of the exit doors.

According to a report on Tuesday from the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety, a passenger on American Airlines 1915 from Milwaukee to Dallas told a flight attendant in the front galley of the flight that he needed “to exit the aircraft right now.”

Officials said the man grew increasingly agitated and the situation grew more tense. Eventually, the report said, the flight attendant called to the back of the plane to ask for help, the report says.

The flight attendant put herself between the plane’s exit and the disruptive passenger, but he rushed toward her and the door. Officials said he attacked her, hurting her neck and wrist, and tried to force open a place door at 30,000 feet.

At that point, a group of passengers grabbed the passenger and pinned him down. One of the passengers, Doug McCright, told WDJT that he bear-hugged the unruly passenger and forced him to the ground.

“He was bound and determined, he wanted off that plane,” McCright said. “I was bound and determined, he wasn’t getting off that plane.”

The other passengers got duct tape from another flight attendant and secured the man’s wrists, knees and ankles to secure him, and held him until the plane could land, McCright posted online.

“The three of us in the pic then held him down for the balance of the flight, probably 30 minutes,” McCright wrote on Facebook. “When we first started to duct tape him he was just ripping the duct tape… He obviously had a mental health issue going on. There was a point when he was telling us he was the captain. Told us we hadn’t left yet. Wanted to talk to his therapist. Said everything was OK so let him go back to his seat.”

When the plane landed at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, agents from the FBI and the airport’s Department of Public Safety boarded to detain the passenger and take him in for a mental evaluation, the report said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will investigate the incident.

“The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority and we thank our team members and customers for managing a difficult situation,” American Airlines told CNN in a statement.

The incident is the latest example of unruly passengers – passengers aboard flights that attack flight crew members or other passengers – that has plagued airlines since the pandemic. In 2021, there were more than 6,000 incidents of unruly passengers. Since then, the number per year has declined. In 2023, there were more than 2,000 incidents. The FAA and FBI started 400 enforcement actions that year, resulting in $7.5 million in fines for passengers whose behavior harmed others.

This year alone there have been more than 1,850 incidents reported to the FAA.

In October, a man was charged in an unprovoked attack on another passenger. Officials said Everett Chad Nelson was walking back from the bathroom about two hours into the flight when he stopped and “began physically attacking a sleeping male passenger.” Nelson repeatedly punched the man in the face and head until blood was drawn, officials said.

Passengers and crew members restrained Nelson until the plane landed, while a passenger who identified himself as a doctor rushed to help the victim and administer first aid.

In September, a passenger tried to choke a flight attendant and “said he was going to kill everybody on board” of a Frontier Airlines flight.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of California, Charles Angel Salva, 30, was charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants after he said he wanted off the plane.

Salva was on a flight from Santa Ana to San Francisco when a flight attendant noticed that he seemed claustrophobic and agitated. Salva began yelling obscenities at the flight attendants and said, “We are all going to hell,” and “This airplane is going down!” Salva then grabbed at other passengers and ran toward the rear of the plane as flight attendants tried to restrain him.

As they reached him, he allegedly attempted to choke one flight attendant and pushed another, saying he was going to kill everyone on the plane. Passengers helped to restrain him, but he broke out of flex cuffs and had to be restrained with seatbelts. When he was trying to get out of the seat, he kicked another flight attendant in the leg severely enough to require medical attention.

The FAA has a Zero Tolerance policy toward unruly behavior, and has worked with law enforcement to prosecute bad actors and levy fines up to $13,800 per incident. The single highest individual penalty so far has been $40,823 issued to a passenger who brought their own alcohol on board, smoked marijuana in the bathroom and sexually assaulted a flight attendant – all on the same flight.

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