Failed hijack attempt of United flight out of Dulles, Virginia

originally posted by: Flavian

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: Pistoche

I find it reassuring that passengers no longer sit and do nothing when crap like this occurs.

Totally agree. Although i do wonder if there would have been the same reaction if he was carrying a machete or had a gun......you hope so but i don't know......

He appears to be a young man with issues though. Hopefully he is getting the helps he clearly needs now.

Its been the trend for passengers to physically subdue passengers. I believe it has to to with the flying publics awareness of the hijackers false claims on 9/11, and the general belief no substantial weaponry can pass TSA

www.dailymail.co.uk...

I realize it's the Daily Mail, and not Reddit but still. Don't really think this qualifies as a hijack attempt. Sounds more like a dude drugged up on something who lost his crap for a few minutes.

Guess we'll see what else comes out about it.

a reply to: PLAYERONE01

well maybe not on here because we like to deny ignorance and research all plausible possibilities before jumping to conclusions.

What ATS are you on? Because the one I belong to has stories posted without much thought on a pretty regular basis.

a reply to: Pistoche

To me...it is obvious that this man has a mental illness...he was having a nervous breakdown and hallucinating.

I do not believe he is a hijacker...I think he was most likely running to the cockpit for help.

I hope and pray he gets the help he needs and recovers.

www.washingtonpost.com... 4-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html
Flight 1074, was carrying 33 passengers to Denver from Dulles. It was a twin-jet Boeing 737 with a crew of six.

What's the seating capacity on a B737? 150, at least? And there's only 33pax; thus the plane was flying at about 25%, at most? Now I'm smelling a rat. It's been decades since I flew on a plane that empty. Every plane I've been on since the '90s is always at least 80%, and usually closer to 95% full.

It reminds me how all the 9/11 hijacked planes were similarly empty.

a reply to: starviego

It depends on the model of 737, route, and departure time. I've been on flights that are packed, and flights that were almost empty in recent years.

Probably a psychotic episode, but I find part of what he said conserning-

Doing my job, please stop, please stop. They said call it off, my job code said call it off. Admiral (last name indistinguishable) Grand Marshall.

It occurs at the 1:30 mark-

I don't really know if its fair to call this a attempted hijacking or if it could be more accurately be described as a guy going nuts on a plane.

I suppose if this has been pre-9/11 when air craft security was not so robust this could have turned into a major incident.

I really do think that the passengers who subdued the man should be applauded based on what we can see in that short clip. It would also be interesting to know if there was a air marshal on board

originally posted by: starviego

www.washingtonpost.com... 4-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html
Flight 1074, was carrying 33 passengers to Denver from Dulles. It was a twin-jet Boeing 737 with a crew of six.

What's the seating capacity on a B737? 150, at least? And there's only 33pax; thus the plane was flying at about 25%, at most? Now I'm smelling a rat. It's been decades since I flew on a plane that empty. Every plane I've been on since the '90s is always at least 80%, and usually closer to 95% full.

It reminds me how all the 9/11 hijacked planes were similarly empty.

Not even 150, actually. It was a late night flight. To Denver. Not NYC. Not LA. Denver. I've taken several red-eye flights out of dulles that weren't anywhere near full. Not really sure what a less than full flight in a very off peak time of day is supposed to be indicative of, beyond that it was off peak.

If he had some kind of illness the pressurization of the aircraft could have caused him to appear to have a break. It's happened before.

Zaphod is right. Pre-9/11 the aviation-wide philosophy was do nothing, land where they wanted, and no one would get hurt. 9/11 introduced the suicide hijack so from now on it's 'let's get them'.

Our job at DHS is to ensure that even if a nut gets onboard he won't have a gun or bomb. Pre-9/11 a guy like that with a weapon could have ruined everyone's day.

a reply to: Pistoche

Glad to see people step up but still be calm while subduing uncle Andy Botwin .

Looks like a mentally disturbed individual right there, it must have been hard after weeds was cancelled.

Now I am really starting to smell a rat:

www.breitbart.com...
"One of the things he said after being subdued was, “Please stop. Please stop. They said call it off,”

"..... the man seemed convinced that someone else was trying to hijack the plane, and he was acting to thwart the attack; he specifically mentioned “jihadists in the cargo hold.”

"...United 1074 passengers... spoke of remarkably quick action by several of their fellow passengers during the incident.

"Passenger Joshua Lindstrom: “the guy in 3E was a lightning bolt' and just jumped out of his seat and took the guy down to the ground.”

"Others assisted in the process of securing the cockpit assailant, acting so quickly and effectively that passenger Donna Tellam said she thought they were all air marshals."

Note also they haven't identified the man yet, nor filed any charges. Most mysterious!

------------------

Remember how they had a pre-911 hijack drill on an airplane, the one witnessed by Actor James Wood? Interesting how this incident happened just after takeoff. If he had taken over the aircraft at this point he would have been too close for the fighter jets to have gotten to the aircraft before he landed on top of a juicy target in DC. This incident could just be a prelude.

OOOOO-eee-OOOOO!

a reply to: starviego

Someone that is sick, such as meningitis, that gets on a plane is risking a similar event happening.

There was an event a few years ago where a passenger stood up and went to the forward door and tried to open it because the voices he was hearing told him he had to get off the plane because a demon was coming to get him.

It turned out he had an undiagnosed illness affecting his brain, and when the aircraft pressurized it caused swelling, and he had a borderline break because of it.

a reply to: starviego



I can't help thinking that you're right in your assumption.
This felt and sounded like one of those fake 911 calls, where the guy's voice sounds overacted and following a script.

I say....STAGED....for later 'repurposing'.

Additional details:

0www.youtube.com...
Someone says: "You're taking to Sgt Molneux(sp?). What's your rank? ... Don't fight David. .... Here they come(indicating the boarding officers)"

This indicates that at least one of the 'passengers' was a cop.

www.latimes.com...
The unidentified passenger was taken to “a hospital for observation and has not been charged as of this time”
The plane, with no passengers, arrived in Denver about 2:30 a.m. MDT Tuesday.
“We are accommodating the remaining customers to Denver this morning,” United said.

It sounds like he was taken directly to a hospital. Normally in serious incidents like this, they would take him to jail for booking. Was this a ploy to keep the suspect's identity a secret?

www.cnn.com...
Incident happened just after takeoff.
Witness Pastor Josua Lindstrom:
"He was saying like "They're gonna bring the plane down. The plane's gonna go down! The plane's gonna go down!" ... He had some story about making money in California. The guy that was holding him, he's like... 'Come with me, we can make money, we can make money' ..... "

www.huffingtonpost.com...
Passenger Donna Tellam:
"They laid on him and he just kept shouting incoherent things like 'I can make you and your family rich', 'I live next to Apple,' 'I live next to Boeing', 'Let me go and let me live and I'll make our families rich," she said

a reply to: starviego

There ARE non-conspiracy related reasons for people to do things like this you know.

The crazy guy had already been noticed acting crazy in the terminal, and had been denied permission to board earlier flights.

www.washingtonpost.com... 7/4ed16614-cc94-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html
Tellam said members of the flight crew later told her that the man had been “banned” from flying all day because of his behavior at the terminal. She said one crew member told her that he had noticed something was not right with the passenger — and had asked he be taken off the plane — but that he was ultimately allowed to stay onboard.

Given the way the airports are crawling with security types, the TSA certainly would have become aware of him. I wonder if this passenger had a friend--a "well-dressed" man**--who convinced the airline to let him fly. It is also unclear if this man was a transit passenger from elsewhere, or if his port of origin was the Washington area; and no word on what was in his baggage, if he had any.

**Referring to the Underwear Bomber, and the unidentified 'well dressed' man who helped get him on the plane.



Tellam: “If he was acting crazy in the terminal, why was he allowed to stay in the terminal? And if he was banned from flights all day, why was he allowed to get on a flight later in the day? I just don’t understand.”

Yeah, that's what we want to know.

a reply to: starviego

If he wasn't disruptive there would be no reason to remove him from the terminal. If they thought he was drunk they'd deny him boarding until he was sober enough to board. When it was time for this flight he probably appeared sober and calm, and was allowed to board.

SOMEONE is keeping this guy out of sight.

This case reminds me what celebrities do when they've committed some stupid crime. They call their agent, the agent calls a friendly doctor, the doctor then has the celeb committed to some swanky "mental health" center; the cops then can't touch him for several weeks because he is ill and in the hospital.

When this guy does pop up, you can bet he will have the "James Holmes"** vacant stare and will be able to say nothing.


**The Aurora/Batman shooter