United Airlines crew told not to use duct tape on passengers

‘Alternative measures such as tape should never be used,’ says staff memo

A man is duct-taped to his seat during a flight. (ABC7)

United Airlines has told its cabin crew not to use duct tape on passengers.

The US airline sent a memo to staff telling them “tape should never be used” on travellers, even if they are disruptive on flights.

“Please remember that there are designated items onboard that may be used in difficult situations, and alternative measures such as tape should never be used,” read the memo, reports the Guardian.

Staff were told to instead employ “the huddle process … which involves discussing the situation with the captain, customer service representative and ground security coordinator for evaluation and solutions”, and to follow “regular de-escalation and training process”, using their “best judgment”.

United added that the majority of customers had “been on their best behaviour” since returning to the skies.

The memo follows several high-profile incidents involving unruly passengers being forcibly restrained with duct tape on recent flights.

A teenager was reportedly duct taped to his seat on an American Airlines flight after he tried kicking out a window and became disruptive.

The 13-year-old, who was flying with his mother on 10 August, was said to have become disruptive about an hour into the journey from Maui, in Hawaii, to Los Angeles.

The flight was diverted to Honolulu, where the teenager was taken into custody, according to CBSN Los Angles.

Prior to that, a passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight was duct-taped to his chair after allegedly punching a male flight attendant and groping female members of the crew, yelling obscenities, and walking around the plane with his shirt off.

The passenger, 22-year-old Maxwell Berry from Norwalk, Ohio, was arrested after his flight from Philadelphia landed in Miami on 31 July, reported Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV.

Earlier that same month, a woman was physically restrained in her seat with strips of duct tape aboard an American Airlines flight after she allegedly tried to open the plane’s door mid-flight and assaulted a crew member.

Airlines in the US have experienced unprecedented levels of disruptive passenger behaviour in 2021.

In July, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that more than 2,900 incidents had been recorded so far this year, with unions saying that number is around 20 times what they would normally expect to see in an entire 12 month-period.