A disruptive passenger who purportedly launched a “racist and vulgar” tirade on a flight from California to Fiji was shut up by flight attendants by placing tape over her mouth after demanding to know where her husband had disappeared to onboard.
Flight Attendants Forced To Tape Woman’s Mouth Shut After She Refuses To Cease “Racist And Vulgar” Diatribe
The disturbance occurred on Fiji Airways flight FJ 871 on Saturday, January 18, 2025, from San Francisco (SFO) to Nadi (NAN). Midway through the flight, a female passenger became agitated.
“It became known to crew and nearby passengers early into the incident that the woman was traveling with her husband, though they were sitting in different areas of the plane,” shared one passenger to news.com.au. “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.”
Refusing to calm down and remain quiet, flight attendants were “forced to resort to restraining and taping the mouth” as she unloaded a torrent of “racist and vulgar” statements. The woman, whose citizenship is Australian, was believed to be in her 60s and intoxicated.
Here’s the video:
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The witness added:
“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. Parents with children onboard were clearly upset with the excessive vulgar language and swearing with many seen blocking the ears of their children.”
Jacob Amoe Finiasi, another passenger onboard, added this view:
The flight landed on Monday morning (thanks to crossing the international date line) and police were waiting at Nadi International Airport to arrest the woman. Her legal status is unknown.
I’ll refrain from calling her Karen, but…let’s just say I understand why the husband wanted to move seats…
image: Jacob Amoe Finiasi / Facebook
still cannot duct tape the mouth based solely upon speech
Unlawful imprisonment and assault charges should be incoming for the FA
Not governed by American law. So WHATEVER
Where do you come up with this? The flight was no longer subject to US jurisdiction where this happened. If the captain of the flight believes a passenger is making threats or otherwise verbally assaulting the crew, the captain is de facto chief law enforcement officer and can order passenger restraints to subdue the threat. Since the threats were verbal, a gag order it could have been.
Fiji has two substantial ethnic communities: indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians, and there is quite the history of problems between the two communities. Was the mouth-taped woman unleashing a racist diatribe against just one of those Fijian communities or against both of those Fijian communities’ members?
There is quite the history of racist people going to where the targets of their racism are home, and this is but one version of just that. Or was she on a relatively cheap ticket to transit Fiji to try to get to some other country?
She seems nice.