A 69-year-old woman's behaviour on a Fiji Airways flight forced the crew to restrain her using duct tape. Composite / Amelee-Vono Aroha Katoaf / Facebook
A 69-year-old woman's behaviour on a Fiji Airways flight forced the crew to restrain her using duct tape. Composite / Amelee-Vono Aroha Katoaf / Facebook
A passenger onboard a Fiji Airways flight from the United States to Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu had her mouth taped and body restrained by flight attendants after she became disorderly and began verbally abusing staff.
Fiji Airways Flight FJ871 departed from San Francisco on Saturday, January 18 (local time), landing at Nadi International Airport approximately 11 and a half hours later on Monday, January 20 (local time).
About halfway into the flight, a passenger - later said by police to be “intoxicated and causing a nuisance” - started raising her voice around the crew and other passengers, causing a significant disturbance onboard.
A witness who watched and filmed the incident unfold told news.com.au that the woman was travelling with her husband. Despite being seated separately initially at take-off, he’d asked flight attendants to be moved further away.
When crew members refused to inform the woman of her husband’s whereabouts on the plane, she became abusive.
In footage shared to Facebook, the woman - who was identified as Australian but could be heard having an American accent - yelled expletives and harassed the flight crew.
The woman argued with crew members during the altercation. Photo / Amelee-Vono Aroha Katoaf / Facebook
“Goodbye, I’m sticking in my seat. You’re disruptive,” the woman is heard saying in one video. Crew members circled the woman’s seat as they talked to her in the dimmed cabin.
“Stop sulking. And keep your voice down,” a flight attendant told the woman.
“Stop provoking me! You’re provoking me!” the woman shouted in reply. As the flight attendants attempted to move her, she yelled: “Let me go! Help!”
Later in the video, the unruly passenger tells staff that she’s “done nothing wrong”, proceeding to call them “ugly people” and threatening to take them “straight to the American embassy tomorrow”.
She continued to scream and resist as crew members moved her to the back of the plane by force.
A passenger filming told news.com.au that the woman’s threatening behaviour - which allegedly saw her slap a flight attendant’s hand and hurl cups and profanity at crew members - caused concern for everyone onboard.
The woman allegedly made racist remarks towards crew members, and other passengers stepped in to tell the woman to back off.
After she refused to stop on her rampage of expletives, Fiji Airways staff were “forced to resort to restraining and taping the mouth” of the woman, the passenger told the outlet.
“Parents with children onboard were clearly upset with the excessive vulgar language and swearing, with many seen blocking the ears of their children.”
In another video posted to Facebook, the passenger could be seen with her mouth taped shut as she continued arguing with the flight crew.
In a statement provided to media following the ordeal, a Fiji Airways spokesperson said that keeping passengers and crew safe is their “highest priority” and that there is zero tolerance for “any threatening behaviour” on its flights.
Fiji passed one million visitors in 2024 - its biggest year for tourism. Photo / Tourism Fiji
“The individual in question exhibited abusive and unruly behaviour which necessitated restraint by our cabin crew to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all on board,” Fiji Airways said, adding that they were working with authorities as they investigated the incident.
The passenger, later revealed to be 69-year-old Stephanie Bank from Adelaide, South Australia, was arrested by police in Nadi on arrival.
Bank was released on a FJ$1000 ($784) bail after being charged with one count of unruly passenger behaviour under the Fiji Civil Aviation Act. A stop departure order was also issued, preventing her from leaving the country.
Bank was fined FJ$500 ($392) when she appeared in the Nadi Magistrates Court on Thursday. She paid in court, lifting her stop departure order and closing the case.
