Passenger Tries to Open Plane Door

Another psycho on a plane:

The man had been acting strangely for about 20 minutes, then sat up, wrapped belts around his hands and threw punches into the air, Wolfenberger said.

Wolfenberger said he heard a flight attendant yell for help and tell the man, “Sir, get your hand off the handle.”

“Any time you hear a flight attendant shout ‘please help,’ you worry that something pretty bad is going to happen,” he said.

Wolfenberger said the man was held down and punched by other passengers as he grabbed the man’s leg. Air marshals then came and took custody of the man.

I’ve been able to avoid a lot of air travel despite having customers scattered around the country. That’s potentially going to change in 2007 with regular flights into New York City and other destinations on the east coast.

It’s amazing how things have changed since 9/11. When you board a plane now you do so with the realization that you just might have to beat someone down before you reach your destination. If there’s a threat it’s pretty much expected of you. That’s something most of us wouldn’t have considered under any circumstance prior to that day.

You’d think that air marshals would have been involved in an incident on a cross-country flight into Dulles. If they were it wasn’t reported. And I doubt that they could physically confront a passenger without blowing thier cover. If they aren’t on L.A. to Dulles flights where are they?