Unhinged Airplane Passenger Duct Taped to Seat by Gun Shop Owner in Viral Moment
An unruly airline passenger, Arthur Layne Lundeen, aged 67 from Tucson, Arizona, caused American Airlines flight 618 to land early in Baltimore. Lundeen shouted racial slurs and insults at crew and passengers, prompting fellow travelers, including a gun shop owner from New Jersey named Richard O’Lenick and a former law enforcement officer Juan Mejia, to restrain him. Lundeen’s behavior was offensive and disruptive,leading to him being taped and zip-tied by flight staff. O’Lenick and Mejia worked together to hold Lundeen down, demonstrating a strong sense of teamwork. the incident was widely covered, highlighting the passengers’ quick actions in handling the situation.
An unhinged airline passenger who shouted slurs was restrained by fellow passengers, including a gun shop owner from New Jersey.
Arthur Layne Lundeen, 67, of Tucson, Arizona, forced American Airlines flight 618 to land early in Baltimore on its was to Newark on Thursday.
Lundeen reportedly shouted the n-word at a flight attendant, as well as other insults.
The New York Post reported that his LinkedIn profile, which has since been removed, listed him as a vice president at Long Realty in Tucson.
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Juan Mejia, a former law enforcement officer who was on the flight, told ABC News that he and other passengers restrained Lundeen.
Mejia said he “started becoming belligerent, making derogatory remarks to the staff of American Airlines and other passengers, racial slurs, vulgar language.”
He added that the language was “very offensive to the women” in the row behind Lundeen.
The New York Post revealed in a later article that another passenger who helped deal with the situation was Richard O’Lenick, 53, who owns a gun shop in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
“I don’t love to fly, and he just looks at me and goes, ‘We’re all going to die. This plane is going to crash,’” O’Lenick told The Daily Voice.
“And I said, ‘You’re going to meet a couple of new friends when we land.’”
Mejia is one of O’Lenick’s employees.
They were on their way back to New Jersey from a gun expo in Reno, Nevada.
NJ gun shop owner ID’d as hero who duct-taped unruly airline passenger – and his clapback to the lunatic was brilliant https://t.co/MTRpnCpO20 pic.twitter.com/MYdLDvTW3S
— New York Post (@nypost) September 7, 2026
Mejia and O’Lenick moved to protect other passengers, holding Lundeen down as flight attendants used tape and zip ties to restrain him.
“I knew we were going to be doing this together, it wasn’t a thought,” O’Lenick recalled of the moment.
“I’ve got his back and he’s got mine,” he added.
“It went the way it did because we have a good relationship and we understood each other and neither of us were going to let the other down.”
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