A group of passengers on an American Airlines flight used duct tape to restrain a Canadian man who allegedly tried to open a cabin door as the plane was flying from Milwaukee to Dallas on Tuesday morning.
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The unruly passenger aboard Flight 1915 allegedly demanded to get off the plane, asking a flight attendant to open a cabin door mid-flight and grew more agitated when he was denied, according to reports citing airport officials.
The passenger allegedly lunged at the door, striking the flight attendant who was blocking it, according to a report of the incident from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety that was obtained by ABC News.
Other passengers helped subdue the man while a flight attendant handed them duct tape to bind him at the hands and feet.
One of the three passengers who stepped in told KDFW-TV that the man was told several times by a flight attendant to to go back to his seat, which he ignored.
“I said, ‘Sir, she wants you to go back to your seat. You need to go back to your seat,’” Doug McCright told KDFW-TV. “He turns and he says, ‘I’m getting off this flight! I want off this flight!’”
When the passenger lunged for the door, McCright said he grabbed the man from behind and held him back.
“We’re 30,000 feet in the air flying 300 and something miles an hour. There wasn’t any time to think, you just had to do something right now,” he said.
Two other passengers stepped in to help restrain the man with duct tape and pinned him down during the last 30 minutes of the flight.
Dallas Fort Worth Airport Police and the FBI detained the man when the plane landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The man was reportedly taken off the plane in a wheelchair for a mental evaluation.
The investigation is ongoing and no charges had been filed as of Wednesday night, ABC News reported.