An unnamed woman who was on the flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Charlotte on July 6 was strapped to her seat with a duct tape by the flight attendants after she probably suffered a mental breakdown and tried opening the front boarding door mid-flight.
The video of the incident and what appears to be a woman with a gray hear and a duct tape on her hands, ankles, and mouth was shared on TikTok by user @lol.airee.
@notkenna1717 ##greenscreenvideo ##crazy ##crazygirl ##insane ##scary @lol.ariee
American Airlines confirmed the incident taking place on the flight and explained that the crew had to act in order to deal with the situation which disturbed the passengers. At first, the crew tried calming the woman down, but to no avail. According to Business Insider “all flight attendants were running up and down the aisles, frantically kind of like whispering to each other.”
“She was saying, ‘I need to get off this plane,’ and she went up to the exits and started banging on the doors, saying, ‘You need to let me off this plane!’” the paper said, citing @lol.ariee.
During the attempt to bring her to her senses, the frantic woman tried physically assaulting some of the members of the crew by scratching and biting.
Once the plane landed and all of the 190 passengers got off the aircraft, the woman was taken to hospital for evaluation.
American Airlines said a woman “physically assaulted, bit and caused injury to a flight attendant” after trying to open one of the plane’s doors. https://t.co/nkLZjV6Naw
— USA TODAY Travel (@usatodaytravel) July 12, 2021
The person who posted the video didn’t approve of how the company dealt with the emergency and believed they could do something different instead of duck taping someone who was visibly distressed. American Airlines, however, believe they acted accordingly and were only trying to protect the rest of the people on the flight.
“[The woman] attempted to open the forward boarding door and physically assaulted, bit, and caused injury to a flight attendant. We applaud our crew for their professionalism and quick effort to protect those on board,” a spokesperson told Business Insider in an emailed statement.
While an investigation regarding the incident is ongoing, American Airlines has reportedly put the woman on their “no-fly” list.
We are glad the woman didn’t harm herself or any of the passengers.