Crew members and passengers wrestled a 28-year-old man to the cabin floor after he began pounding on the cockpit of a plane approaching San Francisco.The man was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant about 10 minutes before American Airlines Flight 1561 from Chicago was due in on Sunday night, police said.
Rageit Almurisi, 28, carried a Yemen passport, but his nationality wasn't clear, a spokesman said. The incident is the third scare of the weekend for U.S. air passengers.
The motive was unknown but the suspect had no known ties with terrorism, he said.
It was a male flight attendant who tackled the suspect, and other crew members aided as the suspect banged on the cockpit door.
'He asked for help; a couple of passengers joined in,' said the spokesman. 'They were able to get him to ground and a flight attendant put him in plastic handcuffs.'
The Boeing 737 carrying 162 people landed safely at 9:10pm and Almurisi was taken into police custody.
He was charged with interfering with a flight crew - a federal offence.
During the scuffle, Almurisi sustained some bruises and was checked at a hospital before being transported to San Mateo County Jail, the officer said.
It was the third terrifying incident for air passengers over the weekend. Read More
TWO OTHER SCARES IN THE AIR PAST 3 DAYS
A 34-year-old Illinois man went berserk aboard Continental Airlines Boeing 737 from Houston to Chicago and tried to open the door at 35,000ft, but Vietnam veteran and martial arts expert tackled him from behind.
A Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego was diverted to Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a flight attendant found a note in the lavatory with the word 'bomb'. FBI agents ushered the passengers and crew to safety.
OTHER U.S. SECURITY SCARES
- A man slipped into the PATH tunnel at the World Trade Center in New York and walked all the way to Jersey before saying he had left a bomb in the tunnel
- Police blocked off several streets in the Bronx, New York, as the NYPD bomb squad investigated a parked SUV
- The Mockingbird DART station and the surrounding area in Dallas, Texas, were evacuated on Saturday after a police dog alerted authorities to suspicious packages
- Four people were arrested at Denver International Airport after staff noticed someone videotaping security lines
- A picture of a little baby being patted down by security staff at Kansas City Airport was posted on Twitter
