• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Soldier subdued on Florida flight

Posted on: Friday, 7 July 2006, 12:17 CDT

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier recently returned from Iraq tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Tampa-bound Delta Air Lines jet and was subdued by other passengers, a Tampa International Airport spokeswoman said on Friday.

The 24-year-old man was undergoing mental evaluation at a Tampa hospital, and the FBI was investigating whether charges should be filed, airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.

The man, Neftali Alexander Laimendez, was flying with his brother to see their mother in Tampa and seek medical attention, Geoghagan said.

As the flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport approached Tampa on Thursday night, he ignored flight attendants' instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt, and ran up the aisle of the plane and into the first class cabin, Geoghagan said.

"As he is running, he is ramming the cockpit door, falling on the aisle, getting up and repeatedly doing this," she said. "Three or four of the passengers restrained him and held him on the floor."

Airport police arrested him when the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 landed. Laimendez was unarmed and his intent was unclear, investigators said.

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation under a law that allows people to be held involuntarily for 72 hours if they are considered a threat to themselves or others, Geoghagan said.

Laimendez is a U.S. soldier who had just returned to the United States from Iraq and his term of service was to end on July 12, Geoghagan said.

Cockpit doors on all U.S. airliners have been locked since the September 11 hijackings.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category