Unruly American Airlines Passenger Restrained With Duct Tape And Zip Ties Mid-Flight

An American Airlines first class passenger started attacking everyone around him (either physically or verbally), and even splattered others in his blood, causing a diversion.

I’m not usually a fan of the “passenger acts crazy on a plane” stories, because that happens way more than it should. However, this has to be one of the more extreme examples that we’ve seen in a long time, and it’s a reminder of just how quickly things can escalate in the air. Huge credit to the crew and other passengers for how they dealt with him…

American first class passenger behaves horribly, causes diversion

This incident happened on Thursday, September 3, 2026, on American flight AA618 from Dallas (DFW) to Newark (EWR). The roughly three hour flight was operated by a Boeing 737-800, and took off around 6:45PM.

The first couple of hours of the flight were routine, but around an hour before landing, things took a turn for the worse. This involves the man seated in 4A, the window seat in the last row of first class, on the left side.

According to another passenger seated near him, it was “just like a light switch,” and he “all of a sudden went from quiet to yelling and chaos.” On the physical front, the passenger suddenly placed his hands around the neck of the guy seated next to him.

That was only the start of his tirade — he reportedly used both homophobic and racist slurs (including calling one of the flight attendants the “n-word”). As it’s described, everyone in first class was impacted by his spewing of hatred and vulgarity.

At this point, some passengers stepped in to help the crew restrain the passenger with duct tape and zip ties. As you can see from the pictures, we’re talking about a lot of duct tape!

During this time, he bit the hand of one of the people who was helping to restrain him, leaving teeth marks, and he also covered others in his blood (he was reportedly bleeding from cuts that he inflicted on himself).

The flight then diverted to Baltimore, where law enforcement took over. He then reportedly hit a police officer, before being fully restrained. The 67-year-old man has now been charged with second degree assault and disorderly conduct.

Kudos to everyone involved for controlling this

There’s no denying that some flight attendants in the United States may not be great at deescalation when there are conflicts. However, it’s clear in this case that the guy had to be restrained — if he tried to choke others, had self-inflicted wounds, etc., that’s… not something you can so easily deescalate.

So massive credit goes to those passengers who stepped in to help, and the crew for how they managed the situation. Honestly, it’s rather scary to be in a confined metal tube with someone who is acting this way, where you can’t easily escape.

It’s not entirely clear what prompted this outburst in the first place. Some suggest he was acting intoxicated, though a passenger who stepped in to help says the flight attendant claimed she only served him one drink. That obviously shouldn’t cause this kind of a response, so I suspect there’s a bit more to this.

I hope the guy gets the help he needs so he doesn’t act this way again. But I also hope American bans him from future travel, and that he faces some penalties for his behavior.

Bottom line

An American Airlines passenger caused quite the disturbance on a flight from Dallas to Newark. About two hours into the flight he became violent, and choked the passenger next to him. Then when passengers intervened, he started making all kinds of awful comments. He was then restrained, and in the process he started biting others, and even spraying them in blood, since there were apparently self-inflicted wounds at that point.

I’m sorry for whatever this guy is dealing with that caused him to act this way, but nobody should have to put up with this, so the response seems appropriate. Well done to the crew and other passengers.

What do you make of this American flight diversion?