{"id":1043773,"date":"2026-09-04T22:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043773\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:58:19","slug":"american-airlines-passenger-duct-taped-to-seat-plane-diverted-after-mid-flight-outburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043773\/","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines passenger duct-taped to seat, plane diverted after mid-flight outburst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Newark made an unexpected stop in Baltimore late Thursday night due to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/american-airlines-disruptive-passenger-restrained-witnesses-dallas-newark\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">disruptive passenger<\/a>, the Fort Worth-based airline confirmed Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses who were on board the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/american-airlines-passenger-duct-taped-to-seat\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">American Airlines flight<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday night told CBS News New York his behavior was putting everyone at risk.<\/p>\n<p>Juan Mejia, a retired law enforcement officer, and Richard Olenick say the chaos unfolded about two hours into their flight from Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/aa-flight-unruly-passen-wcbsiycx-hi-res-still-1.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"Man duct-taped to airplane seat \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  A passenger on a Sept. 3, 2026, flight to Newark Airport in New Jersey was so disruptive, he had to be duct-taped to his seat.<\/p>\n<p>                Richard Olenick<\/p>\n<p>A witness who spoke with CBS News New York reports that the man appeared to be drunk and started yelling at a passenger next to him. A flight attendant attempted to calm the situation, but he allegedly called her a racial slur and made homophobic comments. Witnesses said he then became violent, which prompted the crew to restrain him and the flight to be diverted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/09\/04\/man-gets-duct-taped-on-american-airlines-flight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TMZ<\/a> was the first to report this story.<\/p>\n<p>After law enforcement took the man off the plane, the flight continued on to Newark.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The\u2004safety and\u2004security of our customers\u2004and\u2004team members is our\u2004top\u2004priority\u2004and\u2004we do\u2004not tolerate violence.\u2004We\u2004thank\u2004our team members\u2004for\u2004their\u2004professionalism and\u2004our customers for\u2004their\u2004understanding,&#8221; American Airlines said in a statement. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to CBS News, the FBI said the passenger is in custody on state charges, but agents are investigating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The FBI is currently conducting interviews to gather the facts and will consult with the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the District of Maryland to determine if federal charges will be filed,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have not yet identified the suspect.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Newark made an unexpected stop in Baltimore late Thursday night&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[12402,18570,64,1596,43169,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1043773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-american-airlines","tag-baltimore","tag-business","tag-dallas","tag-dfw-airport","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117215254241254954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}