Summary
Orthodox Jewish passenger Yisroel Liebb filed a federal lawsuit claiming a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom during a January 2024 flight from Tulum to Houston, exposing his genitalia to passengers.
Liebb said he was experiencing constipation and had been in the bathroom for about 30 minutes when the pilot broke the lock and dragged him out.
After landing, Customs and Border Protection officers detained Liebb and another passenger, allegedly making derogatory remarks about their religion.
United Airlines and CBP declined to comment.
I’m not a lawyer, but best I can tell from this language, the law is the person operating the plane has to make sure there are seats with restraints, while the people are responsible for using them during takeoff and landing.
I get that for liability reasons, no airline wants to expose themselves by landing without people in their seats. Going further, I interpreted the comment above mine to be saying planes might run out of fuel if the passenger didn’t exit the bathroom. My point was no pilot is going to let the plane crash because someone is in the bathroom.
The link that you were sent is regulations that apply to “certificate holders,” pilots in this case. The requirement that passengers “shall occupy” their seats means that if the plane lands, and the pilot was aware that someone wasn’t in their seat during the landing, the pilot has violated §121.311(b). It’s a big deal. The licensing authorities take things like this super seriously, and a pilot who deliberately violated one of those regulations would at a bare minimum have a black mark on their record that they would have to explain when applying for any future job.
Also, no one is saying the pilot is stupid enough to let the plane crash because someone was in the bathroom. Stop using absurd strawmen and please refrain from it in the future.
Enforcing this law is likely the real function of the flight attendant.
That being said, the PIC is responsible for ensuring there is enough fuel for an alternate airport. But also, if you are below 30 min of fuel, that’s an emergency and you get priority handling.
You might have an excuse if you reached that emergency threshold. Without the ATC recording, it’s hard to determine