Summary

Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth restrained a Canadian man with duct tape after he allegedly attempted to open a cabin door mid-flight, claiming he was the “captain” and needed to exit.

The man became aggressive, injuring a flight attendant as he rushed toward the door.

Several passengers, including Doug McCright and Charlie Boris, subdued him, using duct tape to secure his hands and ankles.

Authorities detained the man upon landing, and the incident remains under investigation.

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    The passenger was seen lying on his stomach with his hands behind his back bound as well as his ankles with duct tape, the report said.

    So for future reference, especially for those of you who do such things recreationally, facedown restraint is very risky from a respiratory standpoint, especially with the limbs back in the hogtie position, that is how the cops kill people (I would say accidentally except they have enough education on the topic to preclude that). But ultimately I’m mostly just glad they kept him from opening the plane. That’s the obvious first priority there. Damn.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      But ultimately I’m mostly just glad they kept him from opening the plane. That’s the obvious first priority there. Damn.

      It’s physically impossible to open a door on an airplane during most stages of the flight. The door first needs to move inward before opening, and the pressure differential is absurd. The handle would break long before you’d open the door. The only time it’s really possible is near the ground as you’re coming in to land or taking off (which did happen recently).

      • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        That’s not true on every plane.

        Typically for doors that don’t open inward first, they have interlocks.

        For example, the over wing doors on a 737ng don’t open inward, they are actually spring loaded on a hinge and swing directly outward, there is a locking pawl that engages and disengages automatically under specific circumstances, requiring the squat switches on the landing gear to be engaged and the throttles to be in an idle position.

      • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        21 days ago

        Boeing aircraft have this safety feature where it fucking immediately falls off so you can always get out if you are the Captain and need to escape from the bad duct tape wielders.

      • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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        21 days ago

        I’m going to trust that you’re correct.

        But I’m still going to duct tape the psychopath for everyone’s safety, including the psychopath.

    • Carvex@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Opening the door during flight is attempted murder of everyone on board, fuck him. I hope it was hard to breathe the whole time and they put him in a nice padded cell for a while.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Considering he was claiming to be the captain and trying to get off the plane it seems highly likely he was having some kind of mental breakdown. He needs proper medical care and a psychological evaluation, not summary execution. Yes he was a danger to himself and others, but that doesn’t mean he’s guilty of attempted murder. A padded room might be appropriate depending on the psych evaluation, but wishing suffering on him without knowing the full situation is too much.

      • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I mean, it’s an attempt, but it’s in no way possible to actually do. That’s thousands of pounds of pressure on that door. I’d bet on the handle breaking off before the door opens mid-flight.

      • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        22 days ago

        They probably were going through some kind of mania or hallucination episode.

        Don’t always assume the worst in people, “eye for an eye” has never worked.

              • Ridgetop18@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                21 days ago

                Uh, no? “An eye for an eye.” is old school ancient.

                It was however a limiting statement. When Hammurabi made “an eye for an eye” into law, it meant you couldn’t just go kill a man’s entire family over losing an eye and call it justified.

                • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                  21 days ago

                  Where the counter comes from doesn’t preclude this, but is an evolution of it. If the law says your family takes their eye in revenge for them taking yours, then they take revenge for what you did, etc. It creates a potential for a cycle of vengeance. It’s better than nothing probably, but it also has serious flaws.

          • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            Maybe try to reason about why an insane person might do that instead of assuming that everybody is evil?

            • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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              22 days ago

              Feel free to reason it out with someone on your next flight as they do everything described in the article. Have fun.

              • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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                18 days ago

                Hey perhaps you should get YOUR head checked… and hope that nobody is like you when you need some sympathy yourself to get through the day.

                • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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                  17 days ago

                  Seriously? This is what you do, come back to week old conversations to talk shit?

                  How pathetic can you be.
                  Learn how to move on.

  • tquid@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    I understand the need to neutralize the threat but duct taping someone to Texas is just cruel

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Assuming it wasn’t a Boeing, he wouldn’t have been able to get the door open, so at least they weren’t in any real danger.

    • Im_old@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Well, not from the door opening, you are right (pressure difference and such). But he already injured a flight attendant, so I guess he wasn’t going to say “oh well it doesn’t open, I tried, I’ll sit down quietly now”.

        • Im_old@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Well, not everyone at the same time, just one at a time! Lol

          I understand what you mean, I’m just kidding.

    • teft@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      That depends on where in the flight he tried to open the door. The article says mid flight but that could mean anything.

      Above 10,000 ft he wouldn’t be able to open the door because of the pressure difference but below that and he would have no problems since the cabin isn’t pressurized and the doors aren’t locked with any key or anything.

      • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Depends on the aircraft. In a 737 the doors drop pins once the takeoff roll begins. He wouldn’t be able to physically open the door at that point.

    • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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      21 days ago

      The year is 2024. Publications no longer need to save headline space by ignoring common punctuation usage. Why do they still do this?

  • aTun@lemm.ee
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    22 days ago

    Why is duct tape easily available on the airplanes then normal rope to tie? Are the airplanes required to use the duct tape in an emergency case?

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      21 days ago

      2 things

      1. when it’s an airplane we call it speed tape and its used all over the aircraft, mostly by maintenance, to keep the plane together. Don’t worry about it.

      2. This probably wasn’t duct tape anyway, but special tape for passenger restraint, similar to zip ties, that is stored on board for use in this type of situation

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        21 days ago
        1. when it’s an airplane we call it speed tape and its used all over the aircraft, mostly by maintenance, to keep the plane together. Don’t worry about it.

        …prior to this comment, I hadn’t.

    • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe
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      22 days ago

      Duct tape is used on airplanes all the time, so it’s readily available & multi-purpose. While it looks super sketchy, it’s actually pretty decent for a temporary fix until a proper repair can be implemented. Sometimes they’re criticized for leaving the temporary duct tape fixes on far too long. 🙃🙃🙃🙃

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    There was a CSI episode with a situation similar to this. Of course, since it’s CSI, the way that turned out was the mentally ill person was killed (and the episode was about the passengers/crew subtly covering for each other).

    Nice case of how in real life, people avoid harm when possible, and in fiction, people are all secretly ruthless savages out for each other’s blood.

    Oh; I should say, in fiction, and for police, who similarly live in fiction-land.

  • Cap@kbin.melroy.org
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    22 days ago

    Something tells me he was not the captain. But I’ll wait for all the facts to come out before I rush to judgement.