Another Probe Of Our Airline Security?

What is it with Minneapolis and people probing our Aircraft security? (h/t Captain’s Quarters)

Retired police officer Bob Hayden, who served in Boston and Lawrence for several years, was coming back from Minnesota on a Northwest plane with his wife when the unexpected happened.

Before the flight even took off, Hayden said a man, who appeared aggravated, was walking up and down the aisle of the plane. The flight attendant had to force him into his seat after asking him to do so a few times.

Hayden said after the aircraft finally got in the air, he noticed there was some sort of commotion. The same man had started screaming and fell into the aisle.

Initially, Hayden said he thought the guy was having a heart attack, but he quickly realized the incident might have been staged. According to Hayden, two flight attendants helped the man back into his seat where he continued to yell for the entire flight.

The incident apparently scared some of the plane passengers and even made some people cry, Hayden said.

When the pilot made the announcement the plane was approaching Logan Airport, Hayden said the man who caused the first commotion and a second person began yelling and fell into the aisle. That is when Hayden said he, with the help of a retired U.S. Marine captain, took action.

Hayden said he grabbed the first guy and sat him down. He then pushed the second man onto the floor and cuffed him with a pair of handcuffs a flight attendant had given him. Hayden said he sat next to the two men until police were able to board the plane.

Interestingly the story doesn’t mention if the suspects were middle eastern or not, as if this was just two loonies on the same plane at the same time acting nuts.  Come on.  This makes me even more suspicious. Add in the fact that this plane took off from the same city as the six Imams last November and you have another interesting coincidence.

UPDATE

Even more information:

Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.

"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, ‘Retired captain. USMC.’ I said, ‘You’ll do,’ " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."

The incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 720 ended peacefully, but not before Hayden, a former Boston police deputy superintendent and former Lawrence police chief, and the retired Marine had handcuffed one man and stood guard over another until the plane touched down safely at Logan International Airport around 7:50 p.m.

State Police troopers escorted two men off the flight. Trooper Thomas Murphy, a State Police spokesman, said one of the men was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital for "an unspecified medical issue, possibly mental health."

He said State Police detectives will investigate whether the man’s behavior should be treated as a medical or criminal matter. A second man escorted off the plane identified himself as the unruly passenger’s brother. Murphy said police would not release the names of the men, who Hayden said appeared to be in their 30s or 40s.

Brothers…..may in fact just be two loonies after all.  Either that or trying to get a lawsuit filed, who knows.  But I do know that we should be proud that two grandfathers had the guts to take control of the situation, and especially the flight attendants.  Check this out:

Hayden said the unruly man’s behavior upset some passengers. One told Hayden the man had said, "Your lives are going to change today forever," as he shouted and refused to take his seat before takeoff and at various times during the nearly three-hour flight. He said that at one point the man lay on his back and was screaming, moaning, and thrashing on the floor.

"Some people were crying," Hayden said. "I thought it might be a diversion. I kept scanning the back of the plane to see if anyone was going to rush forward. The flight attendants did a great job, literally surrounding the two guys who were making all the noise. I told one of the flight attendants I was a retired police officer and would be willing to assist, so we agreed on a signal."

Good for those attendants. 

I love this part tho:

Hayden’s wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob’s been shot at. He’s been stabbed. He’s taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody’s neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn’t know how the book would end."

Gotta love that.

UPDATE II

Just noticed this:

Before the flight even took off, Hayden said a man, who appeared aggravated, was walking up and down the aisle of the plane. The flight attendant had to force him into his seat after asking him to do so a few times.

Hayden said after the aircraft finally got in the air, he noticed there was some sort of commotion. The same man had started screaming and fell into the aisle.

Why was this aircraft allowed to take off?

UPDATE III

Here is a local news story on it with an interview of the one of the grandfather heroes.

In this video Bob say’s he is sure that it was ALL staged, plus we learn he is a former Navy SEAL.

UPDATE IV

Curt

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