A first class passenger on American Airlines flight 1774 from Dallas to Charlotte was duct taped into her seat and gagged after attacking flight attendants and trying to open an aircraft door during the flight. This happened three years ago. The FAA is just now suing the passenger.
About halfway through the flight commotion began and cabin crew locked bathrooms and took bags out of overhead bins. A pilot announced that everyone would have to remain in their seats because of “a bad situation” on the aircraft. A flight attendant explained that the woman tried to get off the aircraft, saying “I need to get off this plane” while banging on the doors.
The woman apparently hit, spit on and bit crew. They duct taped her mouth and tied her into her seat.
American Airlines passenger was duct taped to her seat after she tried to open the plane door, then bit a flight attendant. pic.twitter.com/nDsu3GWnOP
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 11, 2021
Most passengers are never prosecuted or fined for their behavior inflight. When they are, it takes awhile. And usually the government settles for pennies on the dollar if they collect at all.
In this case, it took until 2022, but the FAA assessed a then-record civil penalty. Two years later they are suing, attempting to collect $81,950. And the lawsuit has more details of the events on that aircraft.
- She ordered a Jack Daniels neat a little over an hour into the flight
- Agitated, she started running to the back of the aircraft. Once there she spoke incoherently to other passengers and then crawled back into the cabin.
- She threatened to “hurt” a flight attendant who intervened, pushed them, and returned to first class.
- Then she tried to grab the forward aircraft door while screaming and yelling profanities.
It was then that two crewmembers and a passenger tried to restrain the woman, and she hit a flight attendant multiple times in the head.
Once on the ground, taxiing to the gate in Charlotte, she managed to work her feet free from restraint. A crewmember and passenger again tied her up. She “broke the seat in front of her” making the interior look like that of any given American Airlines Airbus A320.
How did they come up with $81,950? Seems to me that the staff time and effort, damage to the hardware, potential worker’s compensation to the FA’s and the cost of the duct tape (fully allocated) would push this well past $200K.
Service dogs would like the record to reflect that there are far more problem humans on flights causing far more mischief than there are problem dogs.
Dallas to Charlotte, what do you expect? Nonstop service from lawless red state to another lawless red state. You get what you vote for.
Amen, Mak and Uncle Jeff. I’m tired of seeing this crap on aircraft. It has to stop and if it takes six figure fines and jail time, so be it.
Sounds like this person needed serious mental treatment more than a big fine years later. Her behavior was inexcusable and dangerous for everybody and I hope that she got professional help. (As an aside I don’t know of any studies on the matter but I suspect that airline travel can push those with major issues over the edge. For many people it’s a stressful experience from first to last. Some stakeholders are trying to make it better–for example MSP has lovely golden retrievers around that you can relax and play with before boarding–but it seems like an awful lot more could be done.)
How can the government “sue”, and not just prosecute? The government doesn’t have civil rights, how then can they sue for damages in civil court? This seems quite odd. Sure, they can prosecute criminal violations, but I don’t get how they can “sue”.
Disclaimer: Not a lawyer.
If I have an encounter with someone with green hair, I run the other way. If she can’t handle a Jack neat she has some real problems. First class? Shame on her.
Love it ! “ making the interior look like that of any given American Airlines Airbus A320.”
Good. More accountability for bad behavior should be pursued. Her actions were harmful to others.
I believe they should have used more duct tape.
Letting her exit the aircraft when she wanted to would have also been desirable!
Until the airlines start banning these folks from their planes this will continue to occur. I hate to say it, but the airlines will not address these issues until someone brings a plane down in mid air.
So glad some moron had to turn this into a red state blue state issue. No bounds to your ignorance perpetuated by your echo chamber
Oh god—you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been on the Baltimore-Detroit Spirit flight…
Probably the number is the costs of the FAA investigation plus interest for not paying up when a demand letter was sent. Other organizations and individuals would have had to submit demand letters based on actual individual economic losses to get to the same place with separate lawsuits.
Followup, why did Government sue … almost certainly after a Demand Letter giving her plenty of notice, if she didn’t contact Whoever and make payment/make arrangements for payment, she’d be sued for the amount of the Claim. (I like using Capitals …) How the amount to ask for is determined, there’s probably an entire volume of US Codes specifying how it’s calculated …
And the world continues laughing at you. USA
@Mak Yes, and criminals with guns are more dangerous than criminals with knives. But, I don’t want either near me. Are you really trying to make the argument that your trash dumping is OK because someone else dumped more?
I agree with drrichard. This certainly seems like a mental issue. Having said that, if it is determined to NOT be a mental issue, then the best solution is adding her to a permanent no-fly list.
@Uncle Jeff, it seems to me, that the most lawless are the “defund police” blue states that keep letting the criminals out of jail to offend again! I live in a blue state.