A 13yo kid?

Because that's who was trying to kick out a window.

That incident was a case of a kid throwing a tantrum. A choke hold is not the proper response to that. IMO, duck taping the little shit to the seat is a very appropriate response if the child is truly uncontrollable.

I'm in favor of the duct tape as well (as a step after requiring a minor's parents to manage them), but in these types of situations there isn't much time to assess and respond appropriately. For all anyone knows the 13 year old could have been attempting the next 9/11 in a coordinated effort.

I'm fairly certain that the next coordinated 9/11 attack won't involve unarmed 13 year olds.

Yea me too, I meant in a quick, tense situation sometimes it's hard to tell how old someone is

Now that duct tape is not allowed, choking is a valid option. Blame it on the airline for exposing the unruly kids to worse off option of restraining. We are post 9-11. There are children in some conflict-torn regions that kill and rape more than the worse serial killers in America.

Are you saying a 13 year old is incapable of kicking out a window or incapable of understand that kicking out a window is going to cause catastrophic consequences and therefore should be treated differently?

What about this being a 13 year old is mitigating in your mind vs a middle-aged person?

The kid is arguably too stupid to know better so taping him to a seat and making him look like an idiot is more appropriate (especially considering the parent asked for help in this case) and physical violence is less appropriate relative to an equivalent situation with someone old enough to know better.

Quick question: was the comment I responded to edited to include the 3rd part, or did I just speed read it and only see the first 2 lines?

If the latter, sorry I misunderstood what you were addressing.

Age plays a role up to the point it is practical, kids/teens should be treated more carefully no doubt and in most cases are easier to deal with.

But otherwise this isn’t a punitive thing where we’re measuring how wrong they are and their mental ability / level of guilt before acting. It’s a temporary and immediate solution when the parent can’t handle it on their own and the staff talking to them isn’t mitigating the risk.

The idea is to choose the safest and least violent viable option until law enforcement can handle it (choking someone… eh not so much).

Absent ‘alternative means’ provided by the airline, duct tape is one of the quickest, most widely accessible, and probably most practical if non-violent options all fail. Not everyone carries rope or other restraints. These are civilian airline workers too.

Restraining someone can have a legitimate mental impact and bad PR but so does the rest of the passengers who are all naturally scared of plane crashes.

You guys have really lost your minds on here.

Someone trying to kick through a window or open a door does not pose any threat to you.

The door will not open. The window itself is strong enough to withstand any kick that someone could put on it, but that is largely irrelevant as there is the a scratch pane, and that additional window with the tiny hole in the bottom in front of it for additional protection.

If you're holding a choke hold beyond the point someone has passed out, i.e. "risking killing them", then YOU are the danger to others in that situation, not mentally ill dude trying in futility to exit the aircraft at 36000ft.

There is a risk of killing someone regardless of how long you hold a choke hold. Obviously if you could restrain them it wouldn’t be necessary.

Im also not sure what to make of your comments regarding windows and doors on airplanes. It seems the doors would be impossible to open at high enough altitude, but I’m not so sure about windows:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2243764/Man-arreste...

I wonder if in this example it was just the interior layer of plastic/glass?

Doors including emergency exits are locked by the aircraft's systems when airborne.

It's possible, though unlikely, the guy in the article made it through the middle plexiglass layer in addition to the inner layer which is only there to stop you from scratching the plexiglass; at 4mm thick it's certainly within the realm of human strength. However at 12mm the outer layer is comfortably beyond what a human could crack without weapons/tools.