The crew of a U.S. carrier Frontier Airlines plane tied a passenger to his seat with duct tape after he allegedly assaulted three flight attendants during a flight between Philadelphia and Miami, police and the airline said Tuesday.
Noisy airline passenger duct-taped to seat after ‘groping flight attendants’
The individual, identified as Maxwell Berry, was drunk on board the plane, where he ordered alcoholic beverages, according to a Miami-Dade County police report.
The police report also details that Berry, 22, spilled a drink on himself before going to the bathroom to change.
He came out of there with his bare torso and walked the aisles of the plane for about 15 minutes before allegedly harassing two flight attendants.
In a video of the incident released by several local media outlets, Berry can be seen shouting insults from his seat.
Then, after punching a flight attendant in the chest, several crew members bound him to his seat with duct tape until the flight’s arrival in Miami, where he was arrested by police on three counts of assault.
The airline confirmed the incident in a statement and added that the crew members involved in the incident would be “suspended from flying until the investigation of the facts is completed.”
The president of the U.S.
flight attendants union CWA, Sara Nelson, lamented in a statement the company’s decision to suspend its workers.
“We will fight this with all available contractual and legal tools, but we hope it will not be necessary as management is sensible and supportive of the front-line people charged with maintaining the safety of all passengers,” she said.
