A video shows flight attendants duct-taping the mouth of a woman they had to relocate to the back of a plane on a Fiji-bound flight from San Francisco after she berated and screamed at cabin crew members and reportedly went on a racist tirade.
The woman’s outburst was recorded by another passenger on a Fiji Airlines flight on Saturday, Jan. 19.
The passenger who filmed the video told news.com.au that the disruption started about halfway through the 11-hour flight when the woman, who was traveling with her husband, began raising her voice.
“The husband requested to be seated elsewhere when the woman started to raise her voice, and the altercation between the woman and crew started when the crew refused to tell the woman where he had been moved to,” said a passenger who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The woman reportedly began screaming and hurling verbal abuse and profanities on the plane, then threw objects at the flight crew and even slapped the hands of a flight attendant.
“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 witness recalled.
Footage shows a woman yelling that flight attendants were “provoking” her and screaming that she’s “done nothing wrong.”
“You ugly people! Get your hands off me,” the woman is heard yelling at the cabin crew. “You’re going straight to the American Embassy tomorrow.”
The witness said the crew forcibly removed the woman from her seat and moved her to the back of the plane, but her tirade only continued throughout the remainder of the flight.
“When the flight was two hours away from Nadi, the husband came and sat with the woman but this didn’t improve the woman’s behavior. She continued to verbally assault crew members and disturb passengers.”
The video shows the flight crew duct-taping the woman in a final attempt to suppress her outburst.
When the flight landed in Nadi, Fiji, police officers were waiting to take the woman into custody.
Fiji authorities released that they arrested the 69-year-old Australian woman and charged her with an unruly passenger count under the Fiji Civil Aviation Act. Law enforcement confirmed that the woman was “intoxicated” during her outburst.
According to a Fiji police spokesperson, the woman was released from jail on a $345 bond and issued a stop departure, meaning she couldn’t leave the country until her case had been resolved. After appearing in court and paying a fine, the stop departure was lifted and her case was discharged.
The Fiji Civilian Authority Act gives airlines the power to make a passenger leave an aircraft if their behavior is deemed “disruptive,” with cabin crew given the “right to take measures they think reasonable to prevent the passenger from continuing that behavior.”
Fiji Airways confirmed that they cooperated with local authorities during the investigation of the incident.
