Anger aboard an American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth escalated dramatically this week when a passenger tried to force open the plane’s door 3,000 feet in the air.
According to safety records and eyewitness accounts, the incident involved a determined group of other passengers who took action by pinning down the unruly person and duct-taping him to prevent further harm during a 1915 American Airlines flight. CNN I mentioned.
Flight attendants reported that the annoying passenger insisted he needed to “get off the plane now” before lunging toward the exit door, injuring a flight attendant in the process.
This incident adds to a disturbing trend in aviation, where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recorded at least 1,854 incidents of disruptive behavior this year alone.
“He was bound and determined, and he wanted to get off that plane,” said Doug McCreight, who was the first person to pin the unruly passenger to the ground. “I was bound and determined, and he was not getting off that plane.”
The operators obtained duct tape from another flight attendant, twisted the man’s wrists, knees and ankles together to subdue him, then held him for about 30 minutes, according to the report and an account McCreight posted online.
After the plane landed safely at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, agents with the FBI and the airport’s Department of Public Safety boarded it, detained the passenger and took him for a mental evaluation, the report said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it will investigate the accident that occurred on board the Airbus A319.
“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 said in a statement.
The FAA has a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passenger behavior, which rose to a record high in 2021, with nearly 6,000 incidents reported.
Reports have declined significantly since then, but 2023 will still see more than 2,000 accidents, FAA figures show.