Disruptive passenger duct-taped to first-class seat as plane makes emergency landing

By Aaron Cooper, Taylor Galgano, CNN

(CNN) — A disruptive passenger was restrained with flexible handcuffs and duct-taped to a seat as his flight was diverted to make an emergency landing in Baltimore Thursday night, photos and video from other passengers showed.

Richard Olenick and Juan Mejia were more than halfway through the flight when a man two rows behind them in the first-class section started to become belligerent, Olenick said.

American Airlines Flight 618 was traveling from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to Newark when the crew reported the passenger disturbance, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

A flight attendant tried to control the situation but the man got increasingly agitated, started to hit the passenger next to him and then hit a woman who tried to intervene, Olenick said.

Upon seeing things turn physical, Mejia, who is a retired New Jersey police officer, got up and Olenick followed.

“He was starting to become abusive and started using profanity,” Olenick said. The man also used “racial and homophobic slurs,” according to both Olenick and Mejia.

A flight attendant gave Olenick, Mejia and a third person a ziptie, which they used to restrain the man’s wrists as he told them to “Get off me.”

The man then bit Mejia and attempted to bite Olenick, which prompted the three men to start using duct tape from a flight attendant to restrain him, both men said. Following Mejia’s advice, Olenick said they made sure not to put tape over the man’s mouth so he wouldn’t have issues breathing.

“Physically it lessened his ability to move for sure, but it did not solve the issue. He was still pushing and resisting and trying to get up,” Olenick said.

“The safety ​and ​security ​of our customers ​and team members ​is our top ​priority and ​we ​do not ​tolerate violence,” American Airlines said in a statement. “We thank our ​team members for ​their ​professionalism ​and ​our customers ​for ​their ​understanding.”

For the next 15 minutes, Olenick sat on the restrained passenger’s lap until the plane made its emergency landing in Maryland. Olenick attempted to sit back in his seat at one point, but he had to quickly return “because the man started acting up again,” Olenick said.

The 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks next week was already on both of their minds, Olenick said, making the situation even more concerning.

“Juan being a being a cop, he lost people. I was probably three miles from it when it happened, so it’s a very sensitive time and then this guy starts, you know, pulling this stuff,” Olenick said.

The Maryland Transportation Authority Police met the plane after it safely landed at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and arrested one man on state charges, an FBI statement said. Officials did not name the man.

After the passenger was removed, the flight continued on its way to Newark, Olenick said.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, what triggered it,” Olenick added. “But whatever it was, it was pretty intense.”

Duct tape and flexible handcuffs are found on many commercial planes for use in restraining violent or disruptive passengers.

In 2024, a passenger who tried to force open a door and injured a flight attendant while flying from Milwaukee to Dallas was duct-taped to his seat.

There have been more than 1,160 unruly passenger incidents reported so far this year, according to the FAA.

Besides criminal penalties, the agency can pursue fines of more than $43,000 against any passenger who “assaults, threatens, intimidates, or interferes with airline crew members.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.