Arthur Lundeen charged after being duct-taped on American Airlines flight

Arthur Lundeen, a 67-year-old Tucson realtor, was arrested on Thursday night after crew members and fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight to Newark restrained him with duct tape and zip ties, forcing the plane to divert to Baltimore.

American Airlines Flight 618 had left Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for Newark Liberty International Airport when the disturbance began, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight landed at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport around 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, and Maryland Transportation Authority Police met the aircraft and took Lundeen into custody after it arrived.

Lundeen, of Tucson, Arizona, was charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, in the District Court for Anne Arundel County, according to police and court records.

What happened on Flight 618

The trouble started roughly two hours into the flight, according to two passengers who intervened, Juan Mejia and Richard Olenick. Mejia, a retired law enforcement officer, said a man seated two rows behind them in first class turned belligerent, directing racial and anti-gay slurs and vulgar language at the crew and other travelers, including the women in the row behind him.

The situation turned physical, the two men said. Mejia said he turned to see the passenger with his hands around the neck of the man in the aisle seat next to him, a traveler in a suit. A passenger, Michelle Ng-Reyes, told NBC New York that the man appeared to direct his anger at flight attendants who were Black.

A flight attendant provided the duct tape and zip ties that passengers used to restrain the man, according to accounts Mejia and Olenick gave CBS News and ABC News. Ng-Reyes said three men held him down, telling him to stop moving and to sit down.

Mejia said the passenger bit his hand hard enough to leave teeth marks without breaking the skin. Both men said they were left covered in his blood.

Duct tape and zip ties

Photographs and video of the scene, obtained and published by TMZ, showed the man bound to a first-class seat with tape wrapped around much of his body, and cuts were visible on his arms. The passenger was restrained for about 15 minutes until the plane landed and local police and the FBI took over, Mejia and Olenick said.

The men said they did not know what set off the outburst and had noticed nothing unusual about the passenger beforehand, though they suspected alcohol may have played a role. Mejia said a flight attendant told him the man had been served only one drink during the flight.

American Airlines said the flight continued to Newark after Lundeen was removed at Baltimore. The airline said the safety and security of its customers and team members is its top priority and that it does not tolerate violence.

The FAA has recorded more than 1,160 unruly passenger reports so far this year, according to agency data, compared with about 1,600 for all of 2025. The agency still logs more than a thousand such reports annually.

The rate of incidents has fallen more than 80 percent from record highs in early 2021, the FAA has said.

A patchwork of airline rules

American Airlines is one of the few U.S. carriers that explicitly permit crews to strap a passenger to a seat with duct tape, according to the aviation news site Paddle Your Own Kanoo. The tape is carried on board for that purpose, alongside a safety cutter meant to free a restrained passenger quickly if the situation changes.

United Airlines and Southwest Airlines have told their flight attendants not to use it, the site reported. United sent a reminder to crews in 2021, after a cluster of duct-tape restraint incidents, including one on an American flight to Los Angeles in which an 11-year-old boy was restrained with flex cuffs. Frontier ran into the same problem that year when crew taped a passenger accused of groping two flight attendants and punching a third.

The objection turns on evacuation, not appearance. A passenger bound in duct tape has no practical way to free himself if an aircraft has to be evacuated quickly, the industry site said, and that risk is the central argument against it.

Restraint equipment varies widely because there is no industry-wide standard, the site reported. Many U.S. carriers stock flexible cuffs and seatbelt extenders, while carriers such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic use purpose-built restraint systems and Korean Air equips crews with stun guns. American also carries restraint cuffs alongside its duct tape.

Charges and an investigation

The FBI's Baltimore field office is investigating the events that took place aboard the aircraft and is consulting with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland to decide whether federal charges will be filed, the bureau said. The Federal Aviation Administration is conducting its own investigation into the disturbance, separate from the state prosecution.

The bureau said it is conducting interviews to gather the facts. The FAA said the flight landed safely after the crew reported a passenger disturbance and later continued to its destination.

Paramedics cleared Lundeen for an open wound on his arm that officers noticed while taking him into custody, police said. He was booked on the state charges by the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, and the reported conduct that occurred in the air is being handled separately by the FBI.

The fallout in Tucson

Lundeen's brokerage moved quickly to distance itself. Long Realty Company, a Tucson-based firm, said it became aware of reports of the criminal charges and promptly ended its affiliation with him, and that he is no longer associated with or authorized to represent the firm in any capacity.

Upon learning of the incident, Long Realty promptly ended its affiliation with the individual. The individual is no longer associated with or authorized to represent Long Realty in any capacity.

Before the incident, Lundeen's LinkedIn profile listed him as an associate broker and a vice president member of the executive council at Long Realty, according to Newsweek, which reported that the company confirmed he was a former affiliated agent. Kaplan said the conduct described in reports was wholly inconsistent with the professionalism, integrity, compassion and respect for others the company expects from those affiliated with it.

The episode drew notice for how the man was subdued, but the disruption also reached other travelers. Ng-Reyes, who said an air marshal was sitting near her, an account no official source has confirmed, said passengers feared the man might try to force his way into the cockpit. The trip, scheduled to take about three and a half hours, stretched to roughly eight hours because of the diversion and delay, she said.

What comes next

For now, the state case rests on two misdemeanor counts filed in Maryland.

Lundeen was released on his own recognizance after an initial appearance on September 4 and is due back in court on October 19 in Glen Burnie, according to court records.

Both Mejia and Olenick praised the flight attendants for staying calm through the insults and the struggle. Mejia said the group had not set out to hurt the man, only to keep the situation from escalating.

Restraint equipment differs sharply from one carrier to the next, and crews often improvise with what is on hand, according to the aviation news site. American has said only that it thanks its team members for their professionalism and its customers for their understanding, and its statements did not address whether it would reconsider its use of duct tape.