Posted on 12/08/2005 12:21:37 PM PST by Rennes Templar
A passenger on Flight 924 gives his account of the shooting and says Rigoberto Alpizar never claimed to have a bomb
By SIOBHAN MORRISSEY/MIAMI
At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick on the draw when they shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar as he frantically attempted to run off the airplane shortly before take-off.
"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb.
"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."
When the incident began McAlhany was in seat 24C, in the middle of the plane. "[Alpizar] was in the back," McAlhany says, "a few seats from the back bathroom. He sat down." Then, McAlhany says, "I heard an argument with his wife. He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.'"
Alpizar took off running down the aisle, with his wife close behind him. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder," McAlhany recalls. "I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged]. She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane."
McAlhany described Alpizar as carrying a big backpack and wearing a fanny pack in front. He says it would have been impossible for Alpizar to lie flat on the floor of the plane, as marshals ordered him to do, with the fanny pack on. "You can't get on the ground with a fanny pack," he says. "You have to move it to the side."
By the time Alpizar made it to the front of the airplane, the crew had ordered the rest of the passengers to get down between the seats. "I didn't see him get shot," he says. "They kept telling me to get down. I heard about five shots."
McAlhany says he tried to see what was happening just in case he needed to take evasive action. "I wanted to make sure if anything was coming toward me and they were killing passengers I would have a chance to break somebody's neck," he says. "I was looking through the seats because I wanted to see what was coming.
"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."
In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."
McAlhany said he saw Alpizar before the flight and is absolutely stunned by what unfolded on the airplane. He says he saw Alpizar eating a sandwich in the boarding area before getting on the plane. He looked normal at that time, McAlhany says. He thinks the whole thing was a mistake: "I don't believe he should be dead right now."
You betcha.
If you don't want your brains blown out, don't go running off an airplane carrying a backback acting like a lunatic..and then disregard orders to get down, or to keep your hands off the backpack...and then reach into the backpack.
(Just a helpful tip to those who don't know any better...)
BTW... air marshalls only shoot to kill...NEVER shoot to wound... you don't get a second chance...
sr
That's because CNN actually has it splashed across their homepage. Fox doesn't quote any passengers saying that they heard him yell that he had a bomb either.
This doesn't mean it isn't accurate - as I pointed out before, facts on stories like these are very fluid in the early days.
With the security these days, the first assumption is that guys on a plane with guns are Air Marshals.
No wonder you are so intelligent! :) (My dad is bipolar)
Not to me. Since I read that Wolf had already compared this to the London shooting, I don't have any doubt which "way" CNN is going with this story.
If my husband had not said anything threatening, I doubt it would have occurred to me he might be shot as he left the plane.
And what does how I would feel if my husband were killed have anything to do with this thread or what I posted?
susie
What a useless rag TIME magazine is...
I'm sure they couldn't find someone on the plane that HEARD the "b-word"... (Of course, does anyone believe that they even looked for one? Balance...what's that?)
sr
I read somewhere that the flight attendant was trying to soothe the lady after a fight with her husband. The flight attendant told her there were air marshalls on board. Another witness says the wife said "we just have to get through customs". *shrug*
My mother is concerned when she flies with my dad since his hearing is not very good any more. Like many people with hearing loss - especially in unfamiliar situations - he just shakes his head and says "yes" or "ok" when somebody says something to him that he couldn't hear well enough to understand.
The concern is that someone will ask him if anyone put anything in his luggage and he would just say "yes" since he didn't quite understand what was being asked.
I have suffered from panic attacks,off and on, for 30+ years.
I am on medication and if I miss it for a day, I will be messed up two days later, sometimes the next day. You really don't understand how awful they are unless you suffer from them or are close to someone that does.
The point is, if I was on that plane and had a panic attack, I probably would not be typing this now.
No...that doesn't make any sense...
Are you saying that you can conclude--based on a TIME magazine story based upon a single interview with one passenger--that this guy didn't run off the plane babling about a bomb?
I don't think we can conclude anything from the TIME article other than its a poorly based bit of journalism...predicating an entire story around quotes from a guy who was sitting no where near this lunatic, and who could not possibly have heard what the guy what saying just before he was shot RUNNING DOWN THE JETWAY.
Remember, he wasn't shot IN the plane. He was shot on the jetway.
sr
"Are you saying that you can conclude--based on a TIME magazine story based upon a single interview with one passenger--that this guy didn't run off the plane babling about a bomb? "
I see what youre saying but this is not about some TIME article. Not one report has surfaced, in ANY outlet that I've seen so far, corroborating the "bomb" claim. In fact, the stories consistently say that the passengers seem to be in good agreement about not hearing the word "bomb".
Yeah, but it's fun
I agree, from the reports, the marshal made a judgememt call, which cannot be faulted, whatever the circumstances that are discovered after the event.
However it is just possible someone may have decided to CYA sweeten the event with "he claimed he had a bomb". One witness has now come forward to cast doubt on that.
I'll wait to see whow it plays.
We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and plenty of time to digest the information. The air marshals only had a few split seconds to act.
Do you really think it is logical to believe that in these few short seconds that they are contemplating "well let's see the plane just came from Colombia but many of the current passengers really weren't on that flight...hmmm, I wonder if this guy was."
I gues, if you can't control this problem properly and reliably, you don't have the right to endanger others by your presence on the plane. You really shouldn't be flying.
sr
WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE HIS MEDICINE??
Since most passengers who board an airliner have to traverse first-class to get to coach, it stands to reason that he would run up the aisle and through first-class to get off the airplane, does it not?
Didn't we have this conversation last night? :o) Since we are speaking hypothetically - just suppose the man was a terrorist/domestic nut - that he did indeed have a bomb(thanks to an accomplice on the ground) - which he planned to use the threat of to control the plane - forcing it to take off and use as missile at Disney World, etc. But he lost it before he was able to pull Plan A off so he went for broke.
I do not understand Jeff how you can categorically say that a plane on the ground cannot become a missile.
I hope not as that will cast doubt on the whole series of events. That is why I feel it is important not to jump through hoops to try to justify the shooting with faulty logic - it just opens the door for people to think that it was a bad shoot.
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