American Airlines flew a three-hour flight to (just about), nowhere. A 13-year old boy was taken into custody after being duct taped to his seat.American Airlines diverts a flight to MauiYesterday's American Airlines flight from Maui (OGG), to Los Angeles (LAX), ended up diverting to Honolulu, HNL. Specifically, AA212 was to depart Maui at 12.40PM. An Airbus A321neo operated the flight.The decision to divert was made just over an hour after the flight began. There are no diversion points on the stretch between Hawaii and California, so it was decided to fly back to Hawaii.Instead of returning to Maui the plane diverted to Honolulu. It was easier to find hotels there and to accommodate passengers on other flights. The plane landed in Honolulu exactly three hours after leaving Maui. Yes, it was a three-hour flight to nowhere, or, more precisely, 100 miles from their starting point.What was the reason for this diversion? According to an airline spokesperson, the incident was caused by a passenger aboard.This is the incident that led to this diversionCBS Los Angeles reported that the reason behind the diversion was a 13-year old boy who became disruptive after an hour of flight. Eyewitnesses from other passengers aboard the flight reported that the boy got into a fight with his mother and attempted to kick the window out of the window.Video footage shows the teen being held down and an attendant apparently duct-taping his seat. The 13-year old was taken into custody in Honolulu.frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen>The initial report that I received did not give any details about what actually happened. Is the child just violent? Or what could have caused this kind of thing? A later report by The Daily Mail suggests there might be more. Although I cannot verify the accuracy of this report's claims, this report does:The boy, aged 13, is autistic and was fighting his mother on the flight. He refused to calm down.According to one report, the mom had only one arm and struggled to get her son calmed down and control his movements.The younger brother of the 13-year old panicked and tried to kick the window out.I'm not certain how accurate this is, as it wasn't reflected in the original report which included several eyewitness statements. This would explain why it might have been more complicated than we originally thought.I am curious about the FAA's zero tolerance policy for bad behavior in flight.This is not the first time we've seen duct tape in an incident. The previous incident was worse. A 22-year old Frontier Airlines passenger was duct-taped to the seat on July 31. It is so sad that airline passengers are now duct-taped on their seats.Frontier passenger was alleged to have touched 2 flight attendants breasts and then shouted that his parents were worth $2 million before punching another flight attendant. Frontier suspended the crew after duct tape was used to secure the passenger's seat when they landed in Miami. Max Berry, 22 years old, is currently in custody. pic.twitter.com/4xS9Rwvafx Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) August 3, 2021Bottom lineAmerican Airlines' flight from Maui to Los Angeles was forced to divert to Honolulu because a 13-year old on board couldn't be controlled. Initial reports indicated that the teen was fighting his mother. However, more recent reports indicate that he could have autistic and that his younger brother panicked as well.It is fascinating to see that duct tape has become a popular solution for restraining passengers.
