Posted on 12/10/2005 5:03:13 PM PST by WatchingInAmazement
A suspect is in federal custody after passengers say he threatened an infant and tried to charge the cockpit of an airplane en route to Honolulu. No air marshal was aboard, but seven passengers tackled and subdued him.
Passengers say the man's strange behavior started just a couple hours after Northwest Flight 91 took off from Los Angeles.
"He came up to first class several times, and at one point he really startled me... He came up to my left shoulder, and he got right in my face and he said something in Spanish -- he said something about medicine, like 'I need medicine,'" said passenger Linda Deckard from California.
She says the man even gestured threats toward a baby with a cell phone cord, and couldn't sit still. But thanks to one father's planning, a group of passengers are heroes to nearly 200 people on the flight.
"We got the word around first class that if he makes a move for the cockpit door, he's going down," said passenger Mike Deckard. "And that's just what happened. He made a move for the cockpit door and we were on top of him."
He and six others bound the suspect's hands and feet with a belt and cords from an on-board restraint pack.
"I think he's a hero," says Michael Deckard, age 13, about his dad. "I think he did a good job. Obviously he's watching a little bit of football with that tackle. Go dad!"
"If anybody's wants to try something, remember - there are 200 other people on the aircraft who are gonna stop you," Mike Deckard said.
The suspect is a 37-year-old Mexican national. He bit one man who helped tackle him -- a Honolulu Marathon runner who had to get a tetanus shot when they landed.
Passengers were questioned for a couple of hours after landing. The suspect is being held at the federal detention center.
Haven't heard it reported anywhere else but on FR.
They'd rather have the terrorists believe we are cowards.
I think so. But as for the pilots, it won't matter. They won't open the cockpit door. They may end up landing a plane full of dead bodies, but at least there won't be anyone dead on the ground.
He's just biting the passengers that Americans won't bite..
LQ
The man had the cell phone cord in his hand, looking toward the baby after telling the flight attendant he would like to kill the baby. - according to the account I read as stated by the the mother.
Correction: The era when anyone could successfully take over an American airliner loaded with Americans *ended forever* when the General Militia of United Flight 93 reported for duty.
The kid woke up next to the severed head of My Little Pony.
Family values don't stop at our nation's once-sovereign borders:
Another of Jorge's guests just attempting the hijacks we Americans don't want done?
LOL!
Yes, it will be. The reason "human wave" attacks ended was because humans invented machine guns. Otherwise, they work. Sure, you take casualties, but when you have more than 10 people to one enemy, they lose unless they have a machine gun with sufficient rounds. And that's not going to happen now. You simply cannot conceal a machine gun or machine pistol with 200+ rounds with current technology. Add in the close quarters of an aircraft, and you can forget about it ever again.
Even if the passengers fail because someone somehow did the impossible and got a machine gun on the plane, they will buy enough time for the pilots to get to a lower altitude or out over the ocean. That way, if the hijackers have some way to get into the cockpit, the pilots can auger-in the plane where it won't hurt anyone, and *nobody* will be using that plane to attack people.
Would the price in lives to thwart such a hijacking be high? Sure. But the American flying populace has demonstrated repeatedly, and just now in the citation above, that they are willing to pay it in order to protect those on the ground.
If anyone's curious...Northwest 91 is a Boeing 757-300 (a stretched 757), a daily flight from LAX to Honolulu that leaves LAX mid-afternoon and gets to HNL about 7 pm. Looks like the little scuffle yesterday didn't keep it from arriving on time.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NWA91
}:-)4
Seen the difference between bipolar and cocaine use?
There's not much difference, and sometimes they merge.
http://www.bipolarworld.net/phelps/ph_2000/ph30.htm
"Passengers say the man's strange behavior started just a couple hours after Northwest Flight 91 took off from Los Angeles"
...
Look for more of these types to pop up in every sector of day to day life. The MSM or next of kin like to refer to it as a mental disorder, bipolar, whatever.
It's drug abuse peeople! Crack, meth, speed is turning all types of users into schizophrenic nut cases that the rest of us sane people have to endure. I've been complaining and warning about this mess for ten years now.
Humiliation. The effective deterrent. I have no issue with civilian intercession, as it may not be litigated. We shall not take additional casualties in the same fashion as before. My government is prohibited from cruel and unusual tactics. I am not. Therefore, doubt exists. Remediation would compel my enemy to petition the United States government, or perchance recognize the autonomy of American citizenry. Regardless, we will send our women to overtake their military.
Bump.
A planeload of them died in Shanksville, PA on 9/11.
Do you travel by air much? Just asking. Tweakers seem to be rare on the flights that I am on. They are common on the ground.
Good fine. LOL.
I love it!
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