From air rage to duct tape: passenger tied to seat mid-flight

When air rage goes completely off the rails

There are unruly airline passengers.

And then there is the man who allegedly caused so much chaos aboard an American Airlines flight that fellow passengers ended up duct-taping him to his seat.

Flight 618 was travelling from Dallas Fort Worth to Newark on Thursday night when the situation reportedly spiralled into a bizarre mid-air confrontation.

By the time the aircraft landed, the passenger was restrained with duct tape and zip ties — and the plane had been diverted to Baltimore.

Yes, really.

It reportedly started with shouting

According to witnesses cited by TMZ, the man appeared to be drunk and began shouting at the male passenger sitting beside him.

He was reportedly yelling about Jesus and people going to hell before a male flight attendant approached in an attempt to calm him down.

The situation allegedly became considerably uglier from there.

Witnesses told TMZ that the passenger directed racial and anti-gay slurs at the flight attendant before becoming increasingly aggressive.

He allegedly struck the passenger sitting next to him and hit that man's computer.

At that point, the flight crew apparently decided that talking wasn't going to work.

Bring out the duct tape

Several male passengers were reportedly handed duct tape and zip ties by flight attendants.

They then helped restrain the man in his seat.

Video obtained by TMZ shows passengers and crew wrestling with the disruptive passenger before securing him.

Photographs are even more extraordinary.

The man appears to have been wrapped extensively in duct tape, with his hands restrained and tape also covering much of his head.

Whatever else was happening aboard Flight 618, nobody was going to let him get back up and start round two.

The plane takes a detour

The drama forced the aircraft to divert to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

There, law enforcement was waiting at the gate.

The passenger was removed from the aircraft and taken into custody, allowing the flight to continue to Newark.

American Airlines confirmed the diversion, describing the passenger simply as a “disruptive customer” and saying the airline does not tolerate violence.

Maryland Transportation Police arrested and booked the man on state charges.

The FBI is now consulting with federal prosecutors about whether additional federal charges should be filed.

An extraordinary way to end a flight

There is something almost surreal about the whole episode.

A routine commercial flight from Texas to New Jersey apparently turned into a confrontation involving religious shouting, alleged slurs, an alleged assault, duct tape, zip ties, a diversion and an arrest.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, fellow passengers apparently decided they had seen enough.

The onboard security system was called “duct tape and passengers.”

It worked.

Air rage is becoming a serious problem

Behind the bizarre photographs is a much more serious issue.

Airlines have little tolerance for violence because there are hundreds of people trapped inside a confined metal tube travelling hundreds of miles an hour.

A passenger who becomes violent doesn't just create a nuisance.

They can threaten passengers, crew and the safety of the aircraft itself.

That is why this particular incident ended with an unscheduled landing and police waiting at the gate.

The rest of the passengers presumably just wanted to get to Newark.

Instead, they got a story they will probably be telling for years.

And then there was the duct tape

We have seen plenty of strange things happen on commercial aircraft.

But there aren't many occasions when passengers can truthfully say:

“The plane was diverted because a man had to be duct-taped to his seat.”

Flight 618 eventually continued its journey.

The disruptive passenger didn't.

He was left behind in Baltimore — still facing the consequences of whatever happened during those extraordinary few minutes in the air.

One thing is certain: nobody on that flight will ever look at a roll of duct tape quite the same way again.

SOURCE