A teenager flying American Airlines ended up duct-taped to his seat after getting into an altercation with his mum. The boy had allegedly been trying to kick the window out of the A321 they were traveling on. The flight from Maui to Los Angeles was diverted to Honolulu, leading to a four-hour delay for passengers.
Teen taped to seat after trying to kick out a window
It seems that duct tape is the new must-have accessory in every flight attendants bag as a means of dealing with the rapid rise in unruly passengers. Following an incident in July where a first lass passenger ended up taped to their seat, American Airlines has used the super sticky tape to restrain another person onboard their flight. Only this time, it was a 13-year-old boy.
According to footage obtained by the Los Angeles CBS Local, American airlines was flying from Maui to Los Angeles when a 13-year old boy became disruptive. People on the flight have told the press that he began to be violent towards his own mother, and attempted to kick out the window adjacent to his seat around an hour into the flight.
Fearing for the safety of others on board, nearby passengers restrained the boy to prevent him harming anyone else. A flight attendant then appeared and proceeded to duct tape the passenger to his seat, something we’ve seen all too often recently.
The flight had departed Maui at around 12:30 yesterday. It should have arrived at LAX at around 21:00 local time. Instead, passengers were faced with a delay of around four hours, as the plane was diverted back to Hawaii. Rather than landing back at Kahului, the aircraft headed to Honolulu where it was met by police and the teen detained for his disruption.
American Airlines told Simple Flying,
Flight 212 from Kahului Airport, Maui (OGG) to LAX diverted to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu (HNL) due to an incident with a passenger on board. After landing at HNL at 3:47 p.m. (local time), customers were re-accommodated on other flights or provided hotel accommodations. Safety and security is our top priority and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused.
The other passengers on the Airbus A321neo finally took off from Honolulu at 16:30 local time, arriving back in Los Angles at just after 1AM. The hike from LA to Hawaii is already a fair trek, only made much longer by this onboard incident.
Is duct tape the answer to everything?
According to Jamie Hyneman of cult TV show ‘MythBusters’:
“Duct tape is not a perfect solution to anything. But with a little creativity, in a pinch, it’s an adequate solution to just about everything.”
The use of duct tape in aviation has been on the rise significantly in the past few months. While some may have presumed to spot the silver adhesive tape on wing and cowling surfaces, this is actually speed tape – a specific type of tape used to provide temporary repairs to aircraft. While sped tape has found its home in external repairs, duct tape has found a new use entirely, and its all in the passenger cabin.
You could almost say that Russia sett a trend here, as S7 was one of the first airlines, in recent memory at least, to utilize duct tape as a passenger restraint. Its approach to crowd control, back in December 2019, appears to have inspired a number of other airlines over the past couple of years.
Frontier passenger allegedly touched 2 flight attendants breasts, then screamed his parents are worth $2 million, before punching a flight attendant. Frontier suspended the crew for duct taping the passenger to his seat as they landed in Miami. 22 yr old Max Berry is in custody. pic.twitter.com/4xS9Rwvafx
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) August 3, 2021
In July this year, a first class passenger flying American Airlines ended up duct taped to her seat after she apparently suffered a mental breakdown mid-flight. Subsequently, in August, a male passenger was similarly taped into his seat on a Frontier airlines flight. The FAA is reporting a record year in terms of disruptive passengers – not a statistic for the world not be proud of.
Wile duct tape is certainly not the answer to everything, it is certainly adequate in these situations. The alternative would presumably be something like a non lethal taser or wrestling and handcuffing. With Air Marshals not present on every flight, this would be a whole other line of training for flight attendants to master. In the meantime, what they have mastered is the art of duct tape. It stops the chaos, keeps the passenger safe and causes no long lasting injuries.
in times of desperation, it seems duct tape is the knight in shining armor. But longer term, what we need is better behaved passengers. Let us know you thoughts in the comments.
from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/2VLbcqO
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment