On August 26, 2007, in "Passenger Tries to Open Aircraft Door Mid-Flight," I reported the following aviation incident — citing a FOX News story:

A male passenger, traveling from Denver to New York on Frontier Airlines Flight 514, was arrested Saturday morning at La Guardia Airport after trying to open the aircraft exit door during the flight. The man's name has not been released.

As in the case of shoebomber Richard Reid, it was crew members and passengers who thwarted the disaster.

[From Fox News:] "Passenger Bobby Vigil of Estes Park told KUSA-TV in Denver that the man had been acting strangely. Vigil said he and other passengers helped a flight attendant tie the man to his seat with duct tape. 'The whole rest of the flight, all the way in, he was yelling and trying to bite the tape, and they ended up restraining him with an extra lap belt,' said Vigil." 

The following day, I was contacted by another male passenger who had also been on that flight. He told me that my information was incorrect, but that he was on vacation. So we agreed to talk when he returned home. I spoke with this passenger last week; his story is an important one. He asked to remain anonymous but provided me with a copy of his airline tickets. I call him Passenger 14. 

"This Asian guy was in front of me," Passenger 14 explained. "I was in the fourteenth row and he was in front of me. He would make some noises. I thought, okay, this guy didn't take his meds. He barked once or twice, like a confused guy. This guy was a kid, really, I read he was twenty-two [years-old]. He was tall, six-foot one. But a guy who was mentally not right. When the [incident] happened, it was about 4:00 a.m. We were about one hour outside of New York [La Guardia Airport]. All of a sudden, you hear a flight attendant from the back. Shouting! 'Somebody help me!' she screamed. I woke up and ran to the back of the plane. My fiancé said I was quick. But here's the thing: The flight attendant, she yelled for help. And the only guy on the plane who got up was me."

I asked Passenger 14, who is thirty-five years old, how many passengers were on the plane. 

"100-plus. Everybody just sat there staring! And that's what bothers me about all the news reports. They all said how this Bobby Vigil passenger and "others" subdued him. The truth is, those guys helped me tie the guy up once he was back in his seat. But the important [part], I think, was that when the flight attendant screamed for help, not one single person got up to help [her] but me. She needed help. [The threatening passenger] was a big guy. I put him in a choke hold and I brought him back up to his seat."

Let me repeat what Passenger 14 told me, for everyone who flies with "vigilance" in this post-9/11 world. Mid-flight, a flight attendant screams for help. And one man gets up to help this screaming flight attendant. One man out of more than one hundred people on a plane, responds to a flight attendant's plea for help.

"There was no security," Passenger 14 sighed. "What bothers me is if this [had been] a real threat, the security was a joke. The news reports made him seem like a threat. Was he a threat? I think he was the victim of a disease. 'He had tremendous strength,' one newspaper wrote. He didn't really, and that's not the point. The point is the flight attendant needed help and the only person who touched the guy until he was back in his seat was me. No one wanted to help until he was back in his seat."

Passenger 14's point is loud and clear. If only one percent of Americans are willing to help a screaming flight attendant subdue a passenger who is trying to open an aircraft door mid-flight, then what does that say about the other ninety-nine percent? And what does it say about the situation if the threat had been real?

 
Think this is the first time "people" acted like "sheeple" on an airplane with a threat? Read the story of retired police chief (and grandfather) Robert Hayden in "What Happened on Northwest Flight 720" for details. 

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