If you’ve been thinking “hey I haven’t heard about someone getting duct-taped into a plane seat in a while” then buckle (tape?) up for a new unruly passenger dispatch.
Last week, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Nevada announced that a Las Vegas woman had been arrested after alleged behavior that led American Airlines staff to restrain her with zip ties and duct tape. This woman, Ketty J. Dilone, is accused of yelling, threatening and kicking.
According to the DA’s office, Dilone was a passenger on a Sept. 16 flight from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to Las Vegas that was connecting through Charlotte, N.C. During the American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Las Vegas, Dilone allegedly began walking down the plane aisle and yelling.
In a TikTok video of the incident cited by The New York Post, Dilone can allegedly be heard yelling profanities and threatening phrases such as “you wanna die, b***h?” She also allegedly claimed in the video that she tried to kill her father with roach poison when she was 11.
“It didn’t work,” she calmly said, per the Post’s report.
The DA’s office also said Dilone “started to verbally threaten multiple flight attendants” which resulted in her being restrained in her seat with zip ties and duct tape. She also allegedly kicked a flight attendant, causing them to fall.
While unruly passenger incidents have fallen since a 492% surge in 2021, per Federal Aviation Administration data, they still remain high compared to the pre COVID-19 pandemic era. So far this year, there have already been 1,179 incidents reported to the FAA. That’s down from nearly 6,000 reported in 2021 but still higher than the 1,161 reported in the entirety of 2019.
Audacy has reported on multiple incidents that resulted in passengers getting duct taped into their seats in recent years. In 2021 alone, we reported on a man who was sentenced to jail after he was duct-taped into his seat for groping flight attendants, a viral case of a woman who allegedly bit a flight attendant and was duct taped into her first-class seat and the case of a 13-year-old boy duct-taped into his seat. That year, one airline shared that it did not want staff using duct-tape to restrain passengers.
Another incident occurred last November, when a man was reportedly duct-taped into his seat on a flight from Milwaukee to Dallas after allegedly trying to open a plane door mid-flight. Last month, Audacy reported on a man who was restrained after yelling racial slurs on a Breeze Airlines flight, but duct-tape was not reported.
“When the flight arrived at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers responded and took Dilone into custody,” the DA’s office said of the incident last week. She was charged with one count of interference with a flight crew and one count of assault by striking, beating, or wounding.
Dilone is scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing on Oct. 1. If convicted, she faces a maximum statutory penalty is 20 years in prison.