Flight attendants have a long list of duties and rules when dealing with passengers. For United Airlines, add another one to the list: Don’t tape passengers to their seats.
In a memo sent to flight attendants last week, United reminded its staff that taping back unruly passengers should never be a tool in their playbook.
“Please remember that there are certain items on board that can be used in difficult situations and alternative measures such as tape should never be used,” the memo says.
The use of duct tape has drawn attention recently when two flight crews from other airlines used the method to hold back stubborn passengers.
On August 1, Frontier Airlines flight attendants used tape to hold an Ohio man who allegedly groped two female flight attendants and hit a male flight attendant. The video of the incident was widely shared on social media.
In mid-July, an American Airlines crew channel taped a passenger to her seat on a Dallas-to-Charlotte flight as she allegedly tried to open the aircraft door in-flight. She blamed efforts to calm her down and reportedly bit and kicked flight attendants while shouting profanity.
“As you have probably seen, some airlines have been making news lately about how they have dealt with on-board situations,” the United memo read. “The overwhelming majority of our customers behaved very well during the pandemic and returned to our flights with confidence and enthusiasm. When things moved on, you have relied on all aspects of flight safety training, including de-escalation. “
The memo calls for de-escalation techniques, the use of the safety manual as a decision-making aid and “always to the best of our judgment”.
Tape, though rare, has been used over the years to hold passengers back on flights, including United flights in 2003 and 2008, according to the Washington Post.
“It is common to use duct tape to secure someone who poses a threat to flight or others,” Jeff Price, professor of aviation management at Denver, told the Post.
The Federal Aviation Administration said crew members have some flexibility when it comes to unruly passengers.
“The flight crew is responsible for cabin safety and has leeway how to deal with individual situations,” said the agency in a message to the post office.
The union that represents flight attendants understands that duct tape is extreme, but they support the Frontier crew who resorted to that measure this month.
“When (the passenger) refused to comply after several attempts to de-escalate, the crew were forced to hold the passenger back using the tools they had on board,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Newsweek. “We support the crew.”
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