Passengers on board a plane to Texas were forced to duct-tape a man who allegedly lunged at a female flight attendant and tried to open one of the aircraft’s doors mid-flight.
The unnamed man’s hands and feet were bound, and three passengers held him down for the last 30 minutes of the flight on Tuesday morning.
The incident took place on American Airlines flight 1915 from Milwaukee when the Canadian national allegedly approached a flight attendant and asked to open the cabin door while they were in flight.
The man grew more agitated when he was denied, according to the report issued by Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety. He then rushed towards the door, striking the attendant as she tried to block it.
Several passengers, including Doug McCright, rushed to intercept the man and restrain him. Speaking to Fox 4, McCright said he had observed the exchange between the man and the attendant.
"I could tell that the conversation was not going very well," he said, adding that the man had ignored the attendant’s multiple requests for him to return to his seat.
McCright said that the attendant had motioned behind her back for help, so he jumped up and spoke to the man. "I said, ‘Sir, she wants you to go back to your seat. You need to go back to your seat,’" he told Fox. "He turns and he says, ‘I’m getting off this flight’.”
After the man rushed the flight attendant and lunged for an airplane door, McCright said he grabbed him from behind and held him back. “There wasn’t any time to think, you just had to do something right now," he said.
Two other men jumped in to help McCright, pinning the man down and duct-taping his ankles and wrists. Police at Dallas Fort Worth and agents from the FBI were waiting at the airport.
One of the men, Charlie Boris, said that the incident had been “kind of a fight or flight situation.” "Everyone just really helped and put together effort, and we all get to go to Thanksgiving,” he told Fox 4.
The man who rushed the door has not been charged with a crime, but was taken to hospital for a mental health evaluation following the incident. He has not been named by authorities.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
A statement released by American Airlines said: "The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority and we thank our team members and customers for managing a difficult situation.”
