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U.S. Air Marshal Kills Passenger Mentally Ill Man Made Bomb Threat

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Brian Knowlton

An air marshal on Wednesday shot and killed a passenger who reportedly claimed to have a bomb after an American Airlines jet arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Colombia.

It was the first known instance of an air marshal firing a gun in the line of duty. Because the dead man apparently was mentally unstable and not a terrorist or would-be hijacker the incident would probably revive debate on the risks of such officers being armed.

Wire-service and television reports said that the man, who was identified only as a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, had moved aggressively through the cabin of the airplane chased by his wife down the aisle shortly before it landed. A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, Brian Doyle, said that the bomb threat came only after Flight 924, a Boeing 757, had pulled up to a gate at the Miami airport.

Confronted by air marshals, who ordered him to drop onto his stomach, the man at first complied.

But he was shot, on the jetway outside the plane, reportedly after allegedly making comments about a bomb and then reaching into his bag after twice being warned not to, according to CNN. No bomb was found. No one else was hurt. One passenger, Mary Gardner, told WTVJ, a television station in Miami, that the man had run down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. A woman followed, shouting: "My husband! My husband!"

Gardner said she heard the woman say that her husband suffered from a bipolar mental disorder and had not taken his medication.

The plane was quickly surrounded by police cars and yellow firetrucks. Specially trained SWAT officers and federal transportation officials were also at the scene. The flight's 100 passengers were detained for questioning. The plane was en route to Orlando, Florida.

Martin Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Colombian civil aviation agency, told The Associated Press that the plane had left Medellin earlier without incident. The flight had been scheduled to leave Miami for Orlando at 2:18 p.m. local time, when the shots were fired, The Miami Herald reported.

The demand last year by Homeland Security that flights entering the United States carry armed sky marshals was strongly resisted by pilots unions and some transportation officials in Europe, who said they were worried about the risks of firearms being used in flight. The idea was especially unpopular in Britain. Unions were particularly concerned that undercover marshals could be put on planes without their knowledge. But the U.S. authorities have given the Europeans no choice but to carry armed marshals if they want to fly into U.S. airspace. For many European carriers, flights to the United States make the difference between losses and profitability.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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