Flight attendants have been recorded attempting to restrain and duct tape the mouth of an irate passenger who was thrashing and screaming on board a Fiji Airways flight as she travelled to Fiji.
In exclusive vision provided to news.com.au, the distressed and “intoxicated” passenger – believed to be in her 60s – was filmed on flight FJ871 from San Francisco to Nadi last Saturday.
The flight landed in Nadi on Monday, January 20th, where it was met by local law enforcement and she was arrested.
Fiji Police confirm the 69 year old Australian woman has been charged with a count of unruly passengers under the Fiji Civil Aviation Act and will appear in the Nadi Magistrates Court today.
Police say she was intoxicated and causing a nuisance to passengers.
She is under the custody of Immigration Officials.
The airline has confirmed the incident is now the subject of a “legal investigation” and no further comments will be made.
A fellow passenger who filmed the altercation, and requested to remain anonymous, said airline staff were “forced to resort to restraining and taping the mouth” of the woman, whose comments were allegedly “racist and vulgar” in nature.
The woman was heard screaming and resisting as cabin crew attempted to use duct tape.
The woman allegedly hurled abuse to both cabin crew and passengers.
The passenger behind the camera said the situation unfolded about halfway into the 11-hour flight towards Nadi, after the woman started to “raise her voice” within the cabin.
The witness told news.com.au the woman “caused great distress to all nearby passengers and crew by screaming and yelling abuse” as well as “threatening and throwing objects such as cups at crew members”.
“She had also slapped the hands of a flight attendant,” the witness claimed.
In the footage, crew can be seen trying to tape the woman’s mouth shut when she refused to stop yelling abuse.
The witness says the other passengers were particularly upset by her overtly racist comments towards the Fijian crew members, with many calling out to the woman to be quiet and behave.
The crew forcibly moved the woman to the back of the plane but this didn’t stop the passenger’s abusive behaviour, which continued throughout the remainder of the flight.
Under Fiji’s Civil Aviation Authority, airlines have the power to make a passenger leave an aircraft if their behaviour is deemed as “disruptive” with cabin crew given the “right to take measures they think reasonable to prevent the passenger from continuing that behaviour”.
[Source : news.com.au]
Stay tuned for the latest news on our radio stations
