Flight attendants tried to duct tape a woman’s mouth shut after she loudly abused them and her husband for most of an 11-hour flight.
Fiji Airways flight FJ871 was left San Francisco late on January 18, and arrived in Nadi in Fiji on Monday morning after crossing the International Date Line.
The 69-year-old, who is reportedly Australian but appears to speak with an American accent and threatened to take crew to the US embassy, was arrested on arrival.
Videos filmed by passengers on board showed the allegedly drunk woman yelling at crew as they tried to calm her down, including racist abuse.
Staff forcibly moved her to the back of the plane but her behavior did not improve and they eventually tried to tape her mouth shut.
One passenger said the drama began with a loud argument between the woman and her husband, who were traveling to Adelaide, Australia, together via Fiji.
‘They had to move the husband to another seat… she been fighting him ever since the flight took off,’ the passenger said.
Footage filmed on their phone showed the woman screaming at a flight attendant as she leaned over and tried to defuse the situation – without success.
A woman on Fiji Airways flight FJ871 from San Francisco to Nadi in Fiji loudly abused flight attendants and her husband for most of the 11-hour flight
Footage filmed on a passenger’s phone showed the woman screaming at a flight attendant as she leaned over and tried to defuse the situation – without success
‘This is criminal, this is abusive. No! This is abusive, you are abusing me. What do you expect me to do, you b***h,’ she shouted.
The flight attendant sat down in the empty seat next to her, which was vacated by her husband, and tried to reason with her.
‘Your f**king staff… you f**king b***h. This is criminal,’ the woman yelled, inches from the flight attendant’s face.
The flight attendant’s words were inaudible over the plane’s engines, but she appeared to offer the woman some water.
‘So I can spit in your face? Yes, I want some water,’ the woman responded.
‘Don’t look at me like that, you b***h. You are abusing me, this is criminal.’
The tirade turned even uglier as the passenger resorted to racist abuse about the crew’s Pacific Islander background.
‘This is islander f**king abuse – it’s what you f**king people do, you f**king… if you don’t give them to me, you f**king abuser I will… f**k you’re going to be in trouble. Give me some water,’ she ranted.
Another video from the reverse angle obtained by News Corp showed the woman yelling more abuse before the crew tried to tape her mouth shut.
‘Goodbye, I’m sticking in my seat,’ she shouted.
The flight attendant talking to her appeared to tell her she was disrupting other passengers, to which she retorted, ‘You’re disruptive!’ and ‘No I’m not!’
The flight attendant told her to ‘stop sulking and keep your voice down’, so the woman yelled, ‘Stop provoking me, you’re provoking me!’
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Another video from the reverse angle showed the woman yelling more abuse before the crew dragged her to the back of the plane and later tried to tape her mouth shut
The last piece of video showed her sitting at the back of the plane, still yelling, before staff tried to tape her mouth.
The video cut to the crew struggling with her as she yelled, ‘Let me go, help! Let go, don’t touch me! Stop it!’
‘I’ve done nothing wrong. You ugly people, get your hands off me. You’re going straight to the American embassy tomorrow,’ she continued.
As they tried to drag her out of her seat and move her to the back of the plane, she yelled in pain claiming one of them ‘laid on my shoulder’.
The last piece of video showed her sitting at the back of the plane, still yelling, before staff tried to tape her mouth.
The woman struggled and ducked as the tape was applied, and yelled mostly incoherently other than, ‘My face!’
Whether the aircrew were successful in taping her mouth was unclear.
The passenger who filmed the second video told News Corp the woman’s husband asked to be seated well away from her, and she got angry when staff wouldn’t tell her where they moved him.
They claimed the woman shouted ‘racist and vulgar’ abuse for hours, threatened to throw object such as cups at the crew, and slapped the hands of one flight attendant.
‘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,’ they claimed.
‘Parents with children onboard were clearly upset with the excessive vulgar language and swearing with many seen blocking the ears of their children.’
The passenger said the woman’s husband came back to sit with her about two hours before the flight landed, but was unable to halt her tirades.
A meme of Fiji Airways ad altered to show crew holding roles of tape with a punny slogan
Police said the woman was ‘intoxicated and causing a nuisance’ and was in the custody of immigration officers charged with one count of ‘unruly passenger’ under the Fiji Civil Aviation Act.
Fijian law allowed aircrew the ‘right to take measures they think reasonable to prevent the passenger from continuing that behavior’ if they became disruptive.
Once the plane lands, the airline can boot the passenger off the plane under police escort, deny them boarding on connecting flights, and report them to police.
She was due to face Nadi Magistrate Court on Friday afternoon, local time (UTC+12).
‘The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority, and we uphold a zero-tolerance policy for any threatening behavior,’ Fiji Airways said.
‘We are co-operating with the relevant authorities, who are investigating an incident involving a passenger aboard flight FJ817 from San Francisco, which landed at Nadi International Airport on 20th January 2025, where it was met by law enforcement.’
