Airline Passenger Restrained to Death

Boy, I'd like to know more about a case where a demand for another beer ends up with the passenger dead.

I think we've all had some miserable plane experiences, but I've noticed that egregious behavior in first class, for example, rarely ends up with the offender in handcuffs and certainly not - as in this case - dead.

However, I've had a number of friends and acquaintances tell me that they've seen real overreaction going on inside planes now. So I'm sort of wondering if that may be the case here. I have no idea.

Here's one example of what I mean: one told me of a flight to Chicago (I think) where a man who clearly wasn't feeling well was basically dragged out of a bathroom (where he was ill) and handcuffed. His offense seemed to be that he looked like a Saudi. While the person reporting said the man did get upset, it was only after they would not allow him to return to the bathroom where he'd been vomiting that he himself began to fuss.

Another: What was reported here was that a fellow with an accent that "might have been Middle Eastern" called the flight attendant over complaining because the kids sitting in back of him kept hitting him on the head.

The flight attendant blew him off and the mother of the kids started mocking the man and saying he had no right to complain because he wasn't even an American (I'm sure nationality matters when you're getting hit). The kids keep it up and at one point, throw something that hits the screen of the man's laptop. Guy gets out of his seat, now pretty mad. But he's not touching the kids or using profanity; he's saying the mother needs to control her children.

The flight attendant and air marshal jump all over the guy and tell him that if he doesn't sit down and shut up, they'll put him in cuffs. When one or two other passengers who've witnessed the extreme behavior of the kids, these passengers are told to shut up or they'll be in cuffs with the man. Guy sits down again and poof, one of the kids dumps the contents of a beverage container right over his head. Before the guy does more than start to get out of his seat, in fly the attendant and marshal again and - yes - the man sits cuffed the rest of the flight and gets turned over to police at the airport when the plane lands.

Is it illegal to cuff children? Should it be? ::grin::