A decade-old in-flight meltdown has ended with a major win for airlines — and a warning for passengers about how far 'security' protections can stretch.
On 29 May 2015, Atef Bandary was flying home from Buenos Aires to Palm Springs, connecting onto Delta flight 1105 from Atlanta to Salt Lake City. According to his lawsuit, he asked for food and water to take prescription medication, took it on an empty stomach after an initial refusal, and suffered a severe diarrhea attack. He got up repeatedly to use the lavatory and visited his partner seated rows ahead. He also photographed two flight attendants in the galley, planning a service complaint.
An off-duty JetBlue pilot flagged his behaviour — pacing, staring, peeking into first class — and things escalated. A background check with Delta on the ground found nothing. Yet about 45 minutes before landing, the lead flight attendant confronted him near the rear lavatory. Accounts then diverge: crew said he screamed and lunged; Bandary said he explained he had diarrhea and HIV and desperately needed the bathroom. Either way, an armed Treasury agent aboard was enlisted, and Bandary was restrained with plastic cuffs that were so tight the first set had to be cut off. He suffered wrist and shoulder injuries, his pants fell down exposing him naked to other passengers, and he was never allowed into the lavatory — soiling himself. At Salt Lake City he was hospitalised for psychiatric evaluation, told he was banned from Delta, denied a refund, and found his luggage marked with black Xs. He was later indicted for interfering with flight crew and faced up to 20 years — then acquitted by a federal jury in March 2017.
He sued, alleging discrimination and that crew had turned a medical need into a security incident. In October 2021, a civil jury agreed Delta caused his injuries and awarded $7.225 million (before a 15% reduction for shared fault) under the Montreal Convention, the treaty covering international tickets. Delta fought back. A judge vacated the award as excessive, then dismissed the case entirely on immunity grounds. On 23 September, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2–1 that Delta was protected by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which shields airlines from civil liability when reporting suspicious activity. The majority reasoned that the protection covers conduct flowing from the law enforcement response — including flight attendants helping apply restraints under the armed agent's direction.
The dissent cut hard: a jury had already found Bandary hadn't behaved suspiciously at all, crew testimony was conflicted, and the background check was clean. Those disputes, the dissenting judge argued, were for a jury to weigh — not a court to wave away.
For travellers, the takeaway is uncomfortable. If you're ever the subject of an in-flight 'security report,' the courts have effectively said airlines face little liability for what happens next — even handcuffing, injury and humiliation. Keep your cool, document everything, and know that a boarding pass on an international ticket puts your flight under the Montreal Convention, even on a domestic leg.
