Two US fighter jets were summoned this morning to escort a flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii after an unruly man was subdued by passengers and flight attendants, who had to use a drink cart to block him from the front of the plane.
They weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. It was not immediately clear what the circumstances of that breach were, but the news outlets, citing unnamed sources, said once Flight 31 departed, the man allegedly “tried to break through the cockpit door”.
Special Agents of the FBI Honolulu Field Office and local police responded ahead of the flight’s arrival and took a passenger into custody. The airline also says that he had bought his ticket for the Honolulu flight shortly after midnight at the airport ticket counter.
“He was very quiet, moving very sluggish”, a fellow passenger told The Associated Press.
“The flight attendants just were really heroic”, Lorenzen said.
A total of 181 passengers and six crew members were on board, according to the airline.
However, passengers, with the help of other flights attendants, restrained the guy and duct-taped him until the end of the flight.
Another American Airlines flight, from Charlotte, North Carolina to Hartford, Connecticut made an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Friday due to a strong electrical odor on board, according to RDU officials.
The Department of Homeland Security is involved in the investigation, and agency officials said all US flights would be monitored after the incident, “out of an abundance of caution”.
American Airlines aircraft are parked at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, U.S., August 8, 2016. “He wasn’t trying to go somewhere or do something illicit”.
Los Angeles Airport police say a 25-year-old man with a Turkish passport who was arrested after walking through a door leading onto an airfield ramp provided an address in Santa Monica when questioned by authorities.
Uskanli provided police a home address in the affluent Santa Monica suburb of California.
“We got that military escort coming into Honolulu“, Donna Basden said with a laugh, “so welcome to Hawaii”.
Source: Normangee Star
