How flight attendants deal with unruly passengers Travel on NBCNews com

The man was restrained and after the plane landed at JFK International, a photo of a male passenger with tape around his chest and mouth quickly went viral when it appeared on a blog run by New Yorker Andy Ellwood, who said he received the picture from an acquaintance who witnessed the incident. The startling image prompted many questions from air travelers who wondered whether such creative use of tape would ever be sanctioned on a U.S. airline. First, you should know flight attendants on U.S. carriers do have the ability and the tools to tie up an unruly passenger when necessary, but they would not attach the troublemaker to the seat, said Veda Shook, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. "If we have to physically restrain someone, sure, we're trained to do that, but not in this manner," Shook told NBC News, adding that she's seen prisoners being transported in handcuffs but never cuffed to any part of the plane for their safety. "If there were an emergency, how would he get out of there?" It is standard to find to find flex cuffs -- or plastic ties -- on board flights in case a passenger needs to be retrained, Shook said. It's also not uncommon to find tape on a plane, although it's meant for more routine uses, like hanging up passengers' drink orders or fixing a broken suitcase handle, said veteran flight attendant Heather Poole, author of "Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet." No tape? No problem. There are many other alternatives on board if an impromptu restraint were to be needed. "Flight attendants are pretty clever. If we don't have tape, we'll find something else to use: men's ties, shoe laces, seat belts," Poole said. All of the flight attendants who spoke with NBC News noted that unruly passengers are rare and that they've never come close to having to restrain a flier. Still, the government deals with dozens of out-of-control air travelers each year. Image: Courtesy of andyellwood.tumblr.com The photo of a flier taped to his seat on an Icelandair flight last week went viral, and prompted questions of how flight attendants deal with unruly passengers at 39,000 feet. There were 131 cases of unruly passengers on U.S. airlines in 2011, the last full year for which statistics are available, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That's down from a peak of 330 cases in 2004. FAA regulations do not require that airlines carry items such as plastic ties. "Flight attendant security training is conducted according to FAA and TSA standards, which we do not discuss," the agency said in a statement. While federal air marshals fly under cover on some routes to protect passengers from terrorists, airlines have their own protocols on how to deal with travelers who may have had too much to drink or are behaving badly. Dealing with unruly passengers is not a function of the Transportation Security Administration, said agency spokesman David Castelveter.