Flight Attendants Duct-Tape Passenger to His Seat

A passenger on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Newark was strapped to his first-class seat with duct tape and zip ties on September 3, after fellow travelers said he choked the man beside him and screamed racial slurs at the crew.

Arthur Layne Lundeen, 67, of Tucson, Arizona, was arrested after Flight 618 was diverted to Baltimore late on September 3. He was charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, under Maryland law.

The cabin went quiet, then everything broke loose

Juan Mejia, a retired law enforcement officer, was seated two rows ahead of Lundeen and said the trouble started roughly two hours into the flight. He told CBS News New York the mood changed in an instant.

"Just like a light switch, all of a sudden, it went from quiet to yelling and chaos," Mejia said. "I turned around to look, and the poor gentleman that was sitting next to him in the aisle seat, the individual had his hands around his neck and was, like, assaulting him."

Richard Olenick, who was flying with Mejia, said Lundeen called one of the flight attendants the N word. Mejia said the abuse spread across the front of the plane. "Everyone who was in first class was basically victimized by his spewing of hatred and the discrimination, and the hostility, and vulgarness that was coming out of his mouth," he said.

Photos taken on board and obtained by TMZ show Lundeen wrapped in tape and bound to the seat, his hands and even part of his head covered. Other passengers said he also hurled anti-gay slurs during the outburst.

The passengers who stepped in

When the man grabbed the passenger next to him, Mejia moved. Olenick told ABC News that his friend acted right away. "Juan immediately knew that action had to be taken. He got up right away and jumped in the seat right next to the passenger and began working on restraining him in order to keep the situation contained," Olenick said.

A flight attendant handed duct tape and zip ties to three male passengers, who used them to pin the man to his seat. He fought the entire time. Mejia said the man bit him. "He bit my hand. He didn't break skin, just left teeth marks on my hand. We were covered in his blood," Mejia said, adding that the man was bleeding from cuts he had inflicted on himself.

Michelle Ng-Reyes, another passenger, said the man was thrashing in his seat while three men held him down and repeated pleas for him to stop. She told NBC New York that the crew worried he might try to force his way toward the cockpit.

Olenick said he did not know how the confrontation would end. "I didn't know how far this was gonna go. I didn't know what this gentleman's intentions were. So we absolutely knew that we had to get involved and take control of the situation," he told CBS New York.

Mejia said the goal was never to hurt him. "We weren't looking to hurt this individual; we were looking more to restrain him and control him, so it didn't escalate to go any further," he said. Both men believed alcohol played a part, though Mejia said he heard the crew gave the passenger only one drink.

Arrested in Baltimore, back in court in October

Flight 618 landed safely at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport around 10:15 p.m., and police boarded the plane after it reached the gate. The Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested and booked Lundeen on state charges before the flight continued on to Newark.

Officers noticed an injury on his arm as he was taken into custody. "Lundeen was cleared by paramedics for an open wound on his arm that was noticed by officers while being taken into custody," the MDTA Police said in a statement.

Court records show he was released on his own recognizance after an initial appearance on September 4 and is due back in the District Court for Anne Arundel County on October 19. The FBI's Baltimore field office said it responded to the airport and is investigating what happened in the air. The bureau said it was "conducting interviews to gather the facts and will consult with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland to determine if federal charges will be filed," the agency said. No federal charges had been announced as of September 6.

American Airlines said the plane diverted because of a disruptive customer and that it does not tolerate violence. "The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority," the airline said, thanking its crew and its passengers for their understanding.

His real estate firm cut ties within days

Lundeen's LinkedIn profile listed him as an associate broker and realtor at Tucson-based Long Realty Company, where he was described as a vice president member of the executive council. The company told Newsweek he had been an affiliated agent and was no longer with the firm.

Kevin Kaplan, chief executive of parent group Long Companies, said the company ended the relationship as soon as it heard about the charges. "Long Realty is aware of reports concerning criminal charges filed against a former affiliated real estate agent arising from an incident that allegedly occurred during a commercial flight," Kaplan said. "Upon learning of the incident, Long Realty promptly ended its affiliation with the individual. The individual is no longer associated with or authorized to represent Long Realty in any capacity."

Kaplan said the conduct described in the reports ran against the values the company expects from its agents, and that its thoughts were with the passengers and crew affected.

Why duct tape, and why some airlines won't allow it

American Airlines is one of the few U.S. carriers that openly permits crews to strap a passenger to a seat with duct tape. It stocks the tape for that purpose, along with a safety cutter kept on hand in case a restrained passenger needs to be freed quickly, according to aviation site Paddle Your Own Kanoo. The airline also carries purpose-built restraint cuffs.

Not every airline agrees with the method. United and Southwest have told their flight attendants not to use tape at all. United sent a reminder to crews in 2021 after a run of duct-tape restraint incidents, including one on an American flight to Los Angeles in which an 11-year-old boy was restrained with flex cuffs. Frontier ran into the same problem that year and suspended crew who taped a passenger accused of groping two flight attendants and punching a third, then reversed course after the flight attendants' union pushed back.

The main objection is not about how it looks. If a plane has to be evacuated in a hurry, a person bound in tape has no way to free himself in time. Other carriers reach for different tools. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic carry purpose-built restraint systems, and Korean Air equips its crews with Tasers.

Travel experts said the tape is standard once a passenger becomes a threat. "It's a common protocol. If they are that unruly, they are getting the duct tape out and they are getting the zip ties out because they've gotta restrain them and they've gotta keep them in that position until they divert," CBS News travel expert Peter Greenberg said.

Unruly passengers by the numbers

The FAA has logged more than 1,160 unruly passenger reports so far in 2026. Airlines reported about 1,600 for all of 2025, so with a third of the year still to run the 2026 count is on course to pass it. Both figures sit far below 2021, when the agency counted nearly 6,000 in a single year; the FAA says the rate of incidents has fallen more than 80 percent since that peak.

The penalties can be steep. The FAA can pursue civil fines of up to $43,658 for each violation against a passenger who assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with a crew member, and a single incident can trigger several violations. Serious cases can be handed to the FBI for criminal prosecution.

Under federal law, assaulting or intimidating a flight crew member in a way that interferes with their duties can bring a prison sentence of up to 20 years, plus a fine, under 49 U.S.C. 46504. If a dangerous weapon is used, the law allows for any term of years or life. The agency also warns that bad behavior on a plane can cost a flyer their TSA PreCheck status or land them on an airline's internal no-fly list.

For Lundeen, a trip that was supposed to take about three and a half hours ended in custody. Passengers said the diversion and delay stretched the journey to roughly eight hours before the flight finally reached Newark.