Passengers pounce on man who made threats aboard L.A.-bound fligh

[sabra]

Source: LA Times

Musician Chris Llewellyn was among those who sprang into action after a man shoved a flight attendant and tried to open an exit door.

Chris Llewellyn was staring out the window of Delta Airlines Flight 110, watching the landscape of Los Angeles rise up toward the plane, when he heard the screams of a male flight attendant: "Help me! Help me!"

Turning quickly, he saw that a passenger had pushed the attendant to the floor and was trying to open the rear emergency exit.

"Don't come near me," the man warned. "I have a bomb. I have a bomb."

...

Along with half a dozen other passengers, Llewellyn ran down the aisle into the galley area and jumped on the man, pulling him away from the door.

...

The incident was the latest example of passengers joining to prevent someone from doing harm during a flight. Perhaps the most famous example was on 9/11 when passengers on United Flight 93 fought terrorists, forcing the jet down in Pennsylvania and foiling a plot to crash the plane into the U.S. Capitol.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rapper-airline-bomb8-2009jan08,0,5324632.story

[WriteDown]

1. Geez....

Go Chris!

[CoffeeCat]

2. My husband always says...

...that there's no way another "9/11" would happen successfully, because Americans would
fight like hell.

We know what would happen anyway, if we didn't fight. So, fighting really is the only option.

Plus, Americans have enough fear and anger about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to fuel a counterattack.

We just wouldn't stand for it happening again.

[slackmaster]

3. Your husband is right

It will be a long time before airline passengers become compliant again.

[mfeher1971]

17. You mean the sheeple who do everything they're told to do by the zit-faced TSA?

You mean that kind of compliance?

[slackmaster]

18. Boarding a plane is a privilege, not a right

If the ZFTSAers insist on passengers removing their shoes and such, refusing to comply would be even more foolish than the requirement itself.

I mean compliance like beating the crap out of someone who is threatening the safety of a plane full of people.

[timtom]

28. What's your stance on

the 100-mile-from-the-border "Constitution-free" corridor?

[slackmaster]

32. I have no idea what you are referring to

:shrug:

[timtom]

34. Here:

http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2009/01/constitution-free-zone-takes-to-rails.html

Note the map and note also the comments.

[slackmaster]

35. I'm very familiar with checkpoints

I'm against them. Stopping and detaining people is unconstitutional, and they're not even effective at stopping illegal immigration.

Why do you ask?

[timtom]

36. Some of your previous comments

led me to believe that you might favor the opinion that it's okay because it's the law.

Your response to the corridor issue has cleared you of all suspicion in my mind.

I hope you can forgive me.

[slackmaster]

38. Boarding an airplane is a special situation, kind of like entering a courthouse

Some of the specific security precautions being taken are silly and useless, but I think most people would agree that screening all passengers for weapons and other dangerous items is appropriate and acceptable.

Detaining every vehicle on a public road so they can profile the occupants, on a fishing expidition for illegal immigrants, is wrong in many ways.

[AnneD]

44. And the current level of

TSA harassment, air line fees, and crappy service are just ticking folks off. Their just taking their frustrations out on a hijacker.

[DrDan]

6. kind of late for a preventive counter-attack after a dirty bomb goes off . . .

[The Stranger]

19. That's exactly what Cheney says when he wants to continue torturing people.

[DrDan]

21. that does not deny the fact . . .

there are alternatives to torture.

[slackmaster]

4. The fool is lucky he wasn't killed

:nuke:

[Ian David]

5. Maybe he saw something on the wing...

[louis-t]

15. There is an episode of 3rd Rock From The Sun

Shatner plays the Big Giant Head. The Solomons pick him up at the airport and ask him how his flight was. He says "Good, but I kept seeing something on the wing." Lithgow says "The same thing happened to me!" Lithgow was in the movie version of the same episode. I wonder how many people caught that.

[WV_Biker]

41. I saw that one...

wondered if anyone else got the joke.

[napi21]

7. What the helll was THIS guy's problem? I can almost understand

somebody getting crazy on a very long overseas flight and trying something like that 1/2 way through the flight, but for god sake, if they already saw the LA landscape, they were literally minutes from touchdown!

[Ian David]

9. Maybe he was out of sick-days at work? n/t

[YOY]

10. Pre-existing mental problem methinks...

Just a hunch...no proof.

[slackmaster]

13. Off his meds, on the wrong page

Or maybe just out of his tree.

[Art_from_Ark]

45. Or maybe his hero

is D.B.Cooper?

[Ian David]

8. They need to make this part of the pre-flight briefing before take-off.

"In the event one of you goes nuts, we may call on you to beat the shit out of someone. for that reason, your tray can be removed and used as a bludgeoning instrument."

[OswegoAtheist]

11. You forgot something:

"In the event one of you goes nuts, we may call on you to beat the shit out of someone. for that reason, your tray can be removed and used as a bludgeoning instrument for a nominal $5.00 fee charged to your credit card."

Oswego "Come fly the unfriendly skies" Atheist

[Ian David]

27. Oh, I forgot about that! Just like the oxygen masks require $5.00 per minute if they deploy. n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

14. Good one!

[Name removed]

12. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kajsa]

30. You are entitled to your opinion,

the OP is entitled to his.

Dissing his opinion does not verify yours.

[rrneck]

16. Good for him

that he helped subdue an out of control passenger. But there was not that big an emergency since it is pretty much impossible to open the door of a passenger jet in flight. Since the cabin is pressurized and the door has to first swing into the cabin then swing out, a half dozen gorillas couldn't open it.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. Near landing...

pressurization wouldn't be a problem. Part of the pre-landing procedures is to set the landing altitude into the pressurization panel, so internal pressure will match external. The airflow past the door, however, would present a problem on swinging the door out.

[rrneck]

25. Ah, shoulda read the entire article first. Thanks. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

26. No problem. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. Maybe - but as the plane was coming in to land the air pressure

would be more equalized than if it was still at 20,000'. As i understand it (with a high likelihood of being wrong) that below 10,000 the difference is negligible.

[sledgehammer]

23. Thankfully he's as white & anglo as you can get.

Otherwise we'd be on Threat Level Red (or whatever the top color is on that chart) and all airports would have been shut down.

[damntexdem]

24. This is the true antidote to terrorism.

Just as on Flight 93, and with the shoe bomber, the flying public is the appropriate 'immune system' response to air terror, or just craziness.

[hedgehog]

29. I have no idea how to google the reference, but in August 2001, a

passenger on a plane headed into Denver or Salt Lake City started behaving strangely, and he was accidentally smothered by the other passengers who sat on him. The only reason the hijackers succeeded on 9/11 was that everyone was following a normal hijacking protocol which recommended that everyone stay cool and in their seats.

[sledgehammer]

33. The situations are different

These cases normally involve one unruly (and possibly disturbed) passenger with no weapons.

9/11 was 4-5 hijackers with knives, and a clear mind as to what they wanted to achieve. And they took immediate control of the cockpit. More than likely they killed a few people like the pilots, attendants, and maybe a few passengers, and let the passengers know that.

At that point, there isn't much of a choice than to sit down and wait. Especially since passengers expect hijackers to land the plane somewhere and then start making demands. The passengers had no idea of the horrors that were about to unfold (at least for the first two planes...some of the passengers on the other planes may have gotten wind of the events).

In a post 9/11 world, passengers are much more responsive to threats, and will even risk fighting with multiple armed hijackers.

BTW, this might be the event you are talking about:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/sep/24/tonythompson.theobserver

[hedgehog]

37. That's the incident.

[Kajsa]

31. People realize what's at stake here.

Would I risk my life to apprehend/restrain a passenger
who intended to blow up/crash the aircraft I was flying on?

Yes, yes and yes.

[ACTION BASTARD]

39. If I'm flying then there's 100% chance my family is as well. Therefore,

woe to the one(s)that decide to get stupid on my plane. I work at a maximum security forensic psych center (eg. serial killers/rapists/cannibals/etc)taking down the most dangerous wack-jobs every day are my specialty. Now throw in my family's survival as "motivation"?

Guess what's gonna happen?

MM-1
Tangos - 0

[sgsmith]

40. Some of the stuff in my laptop bag

Could be useful to counter a unruly passenger. Small screwdriver. Laptop locking cable. Eyeglass cleaner spray bottle.

[daleo]

42. What does this mean?

"Chris Llewellyn was staring out the window of Delta Airlines Flight 110, watching the landscape of Los Angeles rise up toward the plane..."

If it is description of a landing, it is a pretty strained metaphor.

[Art_from_Ark]

43. It means that while the plane was maintaining a steady altitude

Los Angeles was having one of its famous massive uplift earthquakes :+

[daleo]

46. Just another day in paradise... n/t