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  • Flight Diverted After Man Tries To Open Door

    On Monday, authorities revealed that a flight, headed from Chicago to Sacramento, was diverted to Eppley Airfield in Omaha Nebraska after a man tried to open a cabin door mid-flight.

    The Southwest Airlines flight had been in the air for nearly an hour when 23-year-old Joshua Carl Suggs made the attempt to open the door. Luckily, the flight attendants and passengers were able to subdue him before the door was opened.

    “Some gentleman just decided that he wanted us to visit the Lord today, and decided to open up the back hatch of Southwest Airlines flight while we were already up in the air,” a passenger on the flight Monique Lawler told KABC-TV.

    Suggs had been asked by flight attendants to return to his seat twice before he pushed his way to the door. He claimed he wanted to look out the window, and refused to sit when the “fasten your seatbelt” signs appeared. “He was going to do bad things to the plane so it was pretty scary,” Scott Porter, another passenger, said.

    After being subdued, a law enforcement officer restrained Suggs and sat him in a window seat next to him until the flight landed safely. Suggs was removed from the plane and taken into custody by the Omaha Airport Authority Police Department. Suggs is being charged with a federal crime of interfering with flight crew members. Passengers described Suggs as having dilated pupils and speaking incoherently. Although the flight was two hours late, it did make it to Sacramento safely, after the scary incident.

    It is not currently known if substance abuse contributed to his behavior. Suggs is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Omaha on Wednesday.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Flight Diverted Due to “Unruly Passenger”

    Flight Diverted Due to “Unruly Passenger”

    An AirTran flight left Baltimore Monday afternoon, making it’s way to Austin, Texas. During the flight a man, who is being described as an “unruly passenger”, tried to open the emergency exit at the back of the plane.

    AirTran Flight 265 was forced to land at Memphis International Airport at around 6:30 p.m. The plane was over Little Rock, Arkansas when the incident occurred, and the pilots chose to land in Memphis because it was the closest AirTran airport. “It’s the kind of thing you hear about and worry about and it was handled completely professionally and calmly,” said Patty Solum, who was a passenger aboard the flight.

    The man, who has not been identified, was restrained by off-duty military passengers until the plane completed the emergency landing. None of the 120 passengers or 5 crew members on board were hurt. However, they were all forced to evacuate the plane once it had landed in Memphis.

    The passengers were then interviewed by the FBI and were allowed to re-board the plane and continue their flight to Austin at around 8:30 p.m. One passenger said that the man seemed to be suicidal and was claiming that he no longer wanted to live.

    “Everyone was really calm and in good spirits and understanding,” said Tara Hamilton, who was on the flight along with her son. “Luckily there were military personnel on the plane and they were really accommodating. It could have been way worse but it wasn’t that bad.”

    http://youtu.be/q1pw51ftEeE

    The Memphis International Airport Vice President of Operations, John Geraud, said that, at the time of his arrest, the man did not appear to be intoxicated, suicidal, or unruly.

    The FBI and the TSA detained the man and questioned him for two hours about his actions. It has not yet been determined whether or not charges will be filed against him.