Photo via CBS Los Angeles/YouTube
August 11, 2021, 11:30 am
A brief clip published by CBS Los Angeles shows a tense moment on a flight in which passengers and flight attendants work to restrain a 13-year-old child who allegedly became aggressive while they were in the air, even toward his mother. After witnesses say he tried to kick at a plane window, the staff duct taped the child to his seat, following a recent pattern of forced restraint of passengers who become unruly, potentially threatening the safety of everyone else on board.
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Most cases like this that have been in the news in recent months have been adults. It’s unclear what caused the young teen to become so upset, but regardless, this incident continues a worrying pattern of increased aggression among airline passengers mid-flight.
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No one was injured during this incident and the plane was able to land safely in Honolulu after being diverted on its way to Los Angeles from Maui.
“Customers were reaccommodated on other flights or provided hotel accommodations,” said a representative for American Airlines. “Safety and security is our top priority, and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, incidents of passenger aggression in 2021 so far have reached 4,000, prompting the FAA to investigate double the amount of similar incidents they looked into in both 2019 and 2020 combined. In about 75 percent of the cases from 2021, they were directly related to anti-masker sentiments, with hundreds of people refusing to wear masks on the plane as has been required by every airline since early in the pandemic.
Additionally, a survey by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union found that 85 percent of the flight attendants they surveyed said they had dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021.
Recent high-profile cases in which flight attendants felt they had no option other than to tape a passenger to a seat include a full-grown man who sexually assaulted two of the flight staff before he could be restrained and an adult woman who attempted to open the plane door mid-air. Thankfully, this is impossible to achieve, but she still attacked multiple flight attendants in the process and got the duct tape treatment for it.
*First Published: August 11, 2021, 11:30 am
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