United Airlines Informs Its Employees Not To Use This Barbaric Practice Anymore

United Airlines has a simple message for its employees. Please don't duct tape any passengers to their seats. The move comes after a couple of well publicized incidents involving other airlines, where flight crews bound passengers to their seats with duct tape an an effort to regain control. One incident involved a 11-year-old boy, according to the Daily Mail, (CBS Los Angeles had reported he was 13).

The boy was traveling on an American Airlines flight from Maui to Los Angeles, that eventually had to be diverted back to Hawaii. After takeoff, the boy was said to have become physically violent with his mother, according to CBS and witness accounts. The Daily Mail says the boy was autistic, and that the whole wild incident had stressed out his younger brother to the point that he tried kick out one of the plane's windows in a panic. CBS had initially reported that the boy was actually 13, and eye witnesses claim it was he who tried to kick out the window and not his younger brother.

Another, far more deliberate act, that could have been totally avoided, happened on a Frontier Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Miami on Saturday, July 31. NBC says the 22 year-old Ohio man had ordered two drinks and then allegedly brushed his cup against the backside of a nearby flight attendant. When the attendant told him not to touch her, the man decided he'd have yet another drink but ended up spilling it all over his shirt. NBC says that's when he went to the bathroom to clean up, but emerged from the facilities without his shirt on. An arrest report says the man was told he'd need to wear a shirt. The report goes on to say that the man then walked up and down the plane aisle for 15 minutes and alegledy groped a second attendent.

NBC says that a third flight attendant tried to get the man to stay in his seat, but the suspect instead punched him in the face. This is when passengers intervened and duct taped the unruly bro to his seat. Police say he was arrested when the Miami bound Frontier Airlines flight finally landed, and has been charged with three counts of battery,