Posted on 04/23/2010 12:39:07 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Florida was diverted to Albuquerque early Friday after a passenger sprayed the first-class cabin with a water bottle, tried to open a cabin door and threatened to blow up the aircraft.
Crew members and passengers on Delta flight 2148 to Tampa subdued Stanley Dwayne Sheffield, 46. He was taken into federal custody after the plane landed at 1:30 a.m. Friday.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Darrin Jones said authorities do not believe the incident was related to terrorism.
Sheffield, whose hometown in Florida wasn't disclosed by investigators, was charged with interference with flight crew members and destruction of aircraft.
Sheffield made an initial appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Richard Puglisi, who scheduled preliminary and detention hearings for Monday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chuck Barth said Jones remained jailed in Albuquerque.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Or he might have been talking to his imaginary friend moohummed in the bear suit.
Sounds like passengers restrainted his moose limbs.
I have a theory about some of these nutcases that do crazy things on aircraft. I believe that it may be related to the decreased pressure and low oxygen content of the passenger cabin air. In her book “Flying Blind, Flying Safe” Mary Schiavo mentioned the fact that the amount of fresh air input into the aircraft is controlled either by the pilot of the airline owner, and it has an effect on fuel efficiency. She also said that some airlines deliberately kept the amount of fresh air low. I have absolutely no evidence that insufficient oxygen would cause the nutty behavior.
Managed to break a zip tie and a leather belt? Perhaps excessive use of PCP.
My thought also...pcp, crack, meth....or Rev Wright
The doors open inwards, so let's assume that you have a door that is 24" x 48" (an airplane door is a bit bigger) you would have 1,152 sq inches of surface area. Now if there is just a 1 PSI difference between inside and outside (inside being higher of course), then you would need to exert 1,152 pounds of force on the door to get it to move inward. This is one of the factors that led to the deaths in Apollo 1, they had an inward opening door and were conducting the test with 19.7 PSI or so and it would have taken an elephant standing on the door to get it to open.
At cruising altitude (39,000' or so) the difference between inside and outside is over 8 PSI. So going back to the 24" x 48" with 1,152 sq inches, it would take over 4 tons of force to open the door inward. Muhammed himself couldn't pull that off.
if you pay attention the next time you are on a plane, you will notice that in order to open a door, they must first pull it in and then push it out to open. This would take strength on the order of the Incredible Hulk to do at altitude since you would be pulling towards the high pressure side of the door. remember that pressure is measured in pounds per square inch. A typical arliner door is roughly 6’ (72”) tall by 2’ (24”) wide - maybe wider. This gives us 1,728 square inches of surface are over which the psi diff must be calculated. I don’t remember off hand the exact pressure difference between a pressurized cabin (pressurized to the equivalent of 8,000’ altitude) and the outside pressure at 30,000 ft altitude, but it’s in the 5-10 psi range. Even if it’s only a 5psi difference, He would need to pull the door inwards with a force of 8,640 lbs.
Do you think a human being could do that? Only an enraged Bruce Banner could do it, IMHO...
drat...I got interupted by a phone call...hence your explanation beat mine...:(
Now, assume 8.3PSID...that gives about 16,400 pounds of pressure on the door. Since it's a plug door he would have to pull it inward to open it.
The most famous Lee who was a killer had it as his first name, not his middle name.
I was assigned an exit row seat one time and the flight attendant asked me (before take off) if I understood how to open the door in an emergency. I said “Don’t you just go like this?” while reaching toward the handle (I was just going to pantomime), and she got a little excited, so I’m guessing there is no electical lock on it.
The Embraer E-170 I was on this morning has doors that open outward.
Correct. The door pulls in then twists to fit through the opening to swing out on the hinges. The design is that even if everything falls, pressure holds the door in place.
I think there's a simpler explanation; alcohol consumption prior to and during the flight.
“Crew members and passengers on Delta flight 2148 to Tampa subdued Stanley Dwayne Sheffield”
If ol D-wayne ain’t in the ER, you are not doing it right.....
Just get down below 10K feet, reduce speed and help him out the door at that time...
Button back up and proceed to your original destination...
No muss no fuss...
Oddly enough, he shares a first name with our Dear Leader’s mother.
http://avherald.com/h?article=42a865f1&opt=0
“Incident: Delta Airlines A320 near Albuquerque on Apr 23rd 2010, unruly passenger”
By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Apr 23rd 2010 19:52Z, last updated Friday, Apr 23rd 2010 19:52Z
SNIPPET: “A Delta Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N319US performing flight DL-2148 (dep Apr 22nd) from Los Angeles,CA to Tampa,FL (USA), was enroute at FL350 about 120nm south of Albuquerque,NM when the crew decided to divert to Albuquerque because of an unruly passenger on board.”
SNIPPET: “Testimony provided to the court said, that the male passenger (46) started to behave strange about 1.5 hour into the flight after visiting a bathroom and causing some damage in there. When he returned, he began to yell, grabbed a bottle from a trolley and sprayed fellow passengers. Subsequently he attempted to open the front airplane door and voiced threats, that the airplane needed to land immediately or he would blow it up. Fellow passengers took action and restrained the unruly, who fought back injuring himself.”
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