Passengers restrain disruptive traveler with duct tape during emergency landing

Passengers on an American Airlines flight used zip ties and duct tape to restrain a disruptive traveler after an altercation escalated during the approach to an emergency landing.

The passenger, identified by several local media outlets as 67-year-old Arthur Lundeen, was traveling in first class on flight AA618 from Dallas to New Jersey. He reportedly began insulting a woman seated beside him, using racist and homophobic slurs.

The situation worsened when other passengers and crew tried to intervene. According to the report, the man pushed staff and fellow travelers and bit one of them. With the cabin increasingly difficult to control, a flight attendant gave passengers who were restraining him a roll of duct tape. They immobilized him for the remainder of the flight.

The aircraft diverted to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where authorities detained the man. The article says he appeared to be intoxicated.