Woman restrained with duct tape after attempting to open plane door on flight to NC
A woman was duct-taped to her seat on an American Airlines flight last week to Charlotte, a video posted to social media shows, after passengers and the airline say she tried to open a door on the plane mid-flight.
The passenger was flying from Dallas-Fort Worth to Charlotte on American flight 1774 on July 6 when she attempted to open the front boarding door and physically assaulted and bit a flight attendant, according to American Airlines.
The flight, with 190 passengers, landed safely at 3:21 a.m. on July 7, according to American.
The video posted to TikTok shows the woman, in visible distress, restrained to her seat as passengers left the plane at the Charlotte airport.
The woman was transported to a hospital for evaluation after the flight landed safely at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the airline said. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police was also present at the landing, according to American.
“For the safety and security of other customers and our crew, the individual was restrained until the flight landed at CLT and could be met by law enforcement and emergency personnel,” American said in a statement.
It’s typically physically impossible to open a plane door mid-flight, American Airlines confirmed to the Observer. There are thousands of pounds of pressure pushing on the door due to the difference in pressure on the inside and outside of the plane during flight.
Other reports of unruly behavior
The Federal Aviation Administration has received thousands of reports of “unruly behavior by passengers” since the beginning of the year, including more than 2,400 reports of passengers refusing to wear masks.
And since Jan. 1, the FAA has proposed more than $682,000 in fines against unruly passengers, according to the agency.
Last week, a group of teens caused an overnight delay for a flight from CLT to the Bahamas after American Airlines said some members of the group became disruptive and refused to wear masks.
And one TikTok video posted in June showed an American Airlines flight attendant scolding passengers who verbally abused them on a flight from Los Angeles to Charlotte.
