January 24, 2010, - 1:53 pm

Yet AGAIN: “Unruly, Drunk” Passenger on Plane #458,473

By Debbie Schlussel

Hmm . . . yet another “drunk, unruly” passenger on a cross-country flight–this time from Washington Dulles to Las Vegas.  Funny, I don’t remember this many “drunk, unruly” passengers, trying to crash a plane before November, when a series of these began and, ultimately, the Flight 253 Islamic terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was nearly successful in murdering 300 passengers in U.S. airspace.

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I’ll believe this was just a “drunk” passenger, when I find out his name and religion.  Until then, I’m reserving judgment.  But I’ll say this:  thank G-d for brave American men, like my new heroes, Earl Stafford, Art Thomm, Sergei Sandou, and Barry Eynon, who subdued the passenger.  For all the “conservative” feminist sniping at me that I’m sexist because I think a mother should actually raise her kids, I’ll tell you this, all of ’em would prefer a good, strong man–like an Earl Stafford, an Art Thomm, a Sergei Sandou, or a Barry Eynon–to save them from a passenger like this, rather than a Sarah Palin or Kelly Ayotte, who wouldn’t be worth a damn here (kinda like their value in their current jobs).  Yup, the new conservative embrace of Betty Friedan’s whines of “sexism” wouldn’t apply here . . . if you really wanted your life saved.

More:

A United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas was diverted to Denver on Saturday night after a passenger became unruly and tried to open a cabin door, authorities said.

Other passengers subdued the man and he was removed from the airplane at the Denver airport, authorities said. The man, who was not identified immediately, was being questioned by the FBI, a bureau spokesman said.

United Flight 223, an Airbus, was carrying 129 passengers and a crew of five when it left Dulles International Airport shortly after 5 p.m., an airline spokesman said. It landed safely at Denver about 6:45 p.m. Eastern time.

Barry Eynon of Coopersburg, Pa., said in a phone interview that he was in the third row when another passsenger “saw this person trying to open the airplane door and trying to get into the cockpit.” The other passenger “jumped up and grabbed him from behind and yelled for help.”

Eynon said, “I jumped up and grabbed him from the front.”

Three or four other passengers also helped to subdue the man, putting him in a seat and ensuring he remained there, Eynon said.

Authorities in Denver said the attempt to open the door was unusual. “We don’t hear that often,” said Denver airport spokesman Jeff Green. Opening the door in the air is “pretty much impossible.”

Is it really impossible? Not with the right equipment, explosives, and know-how. That authorities rule out anything, shows the lack of imagination we are currently dealing with (and have been for the last 8-plus years) in preventing Islamic terrorism.




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24 Responses

Debbie, thank you for your continued coverage of this issue. I would say more, but right now I could not write anything suitable for a general audience.

Skzion on January 24, 2010 at 2:07 pm

Ditto Skzion!
In addition to this sudden outburst of “drunk and unruly passenger”s is the fact that they all seem to have a need to be subdued by the other passengers on the plane. Usually a drunk and dissordely that one hears about can easily be controlled be the flight attendants. Apperently not anymore. And why are they never identified imediately? Don’t they have ID on them. If I were one of the subduers I would find out his name and report it to the press. Maybe they do and the press just refuse to print it (wouldn’t surprise me).
Time to start driving accross country or using Go-to-Meeting.

Go JETS!….and Vickings.

Bob on January 24, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Its impossible to open a plane door at high altitude because the air pressure outside is greater than the pressure inside. So its a safety measure and the only place you’ll see a plane door opened at 35,000 ft is in the movies because it just looks cool. In real life, the only way to open that door is to blow it open. That hasn’t happened yet.

As Debbie notes though, its just a matter of time before someone tries it. I’m not giving the bad guys any ideas. Whatever I thought of, they’ve planned something far worse and our security agencies have no clue as to their next avenue of attack.

Stay tuned.

NF: It’s the cockpit door, which is most important b/c they could fly the plane into a building. But, regardless, like I said, with the right equipment, explosives, and know-how, they’ll find a way to open the cabin door to the outside, and thinking “that’s impossible” is the lack of imagination that allows the Islamic terrorists to constantly succeed. A bomb in a guy’s underwear? It’ll never happen . . . . DS

NormanF on January 24, 2010 at 2:22 pm

Hey Norman….it was the COCKPIT Door

Bob on January 24, 2010 at 2:55 pm

NormanF,
The air pressure at 35000 feet is higher on the inside of the plane. Think about mountain climbers needing oxygen masks at high elevations.

Joe G on January 24, 2010 at 3:40 pm

Where are all those FAMS we got from ICE that just got reassigned for these flights?

peter_principle on January 24, 2010 at 3:47 pm

NormanF

The air pressure outside is less than inside. Why do you think they pressurize the inside of the planes?

Jarhead on January 24, 2010 at 4:31 pm

You know, it’s no wonder my parents drive to and from Florida. This is insanity! Maybe it’s time to head back to the dojo for some training. Just my luck that my family and I would get stuck on a flight with a bunch of HOprah-fied males.

cirrus1701 on January 24, 2010 at 6:06 pm

The FAMs that I know are great guys. Unfortunately they are supervised by a bunch of numbnut ass-monkeys, so their presence is (at best) pointless. The ‘costumes’ they are forced to wear while on duty, are laughable too. My point? I will not fly again….let the industry evaporate. I couldn’t care less. Instead of sniffer dogs, mass spectrometers and hi-tech bullshit gimmickry, we need to take a lesson from El Al here…

#1V: Amen. The FAMs I know are great guys, as well, with bad management. They don’t choose the flights they fly. That’s done by their superiors. DS

#1 Vato on January 24, 2010 at 6:51 pm

Way to take it to the “conservative” feminists debbie. You rock. All you palin fans leave this site alone, for us real patriots. Fox nations just a click away.

tyler on January 24, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Frankly, I don’t care WHO subdues the unruly passengers, as long as someone does it! I was on a flight two weeks ago where a guy sitting nearby was openly defiant with the flight attendant. Let me tell you, this woman did not take ANY guff of this guy – and threatened to have him escorted from the plane by the police when we landed. It appeared to me that the flight attendants are not taking any guff from anyone these days, and the flying public better get used to it.

The guy on my plane wasn’t a Muslim, he was just an arrogant jerk who thinks rules don’t apply to him. There are a LOT of those in the world. I will be interested to see if/when they release the name of the guy on the United flight.

DG in GA on January 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm

I think we are at the point where it must be examined if Islam is a disease.

pat on January 25, 2010 at 12:20 am

Saw a bit of discussion here of air pressure here. The air pressure inside the plane should be equal to about 10,000 feet. At 35,000 feet air pressure is very low. But although the exit doors break out rather than hinge out, it is likely that wind pressure will make the exit a difficult proposition.

pat on January 25, 2010 at 12:29 am

Debbie- I adore you!…& I want you for a daughter-in-law!
Jasper Schurvinga is surely one of your heroes as well….Esther

esther on January 25, 2010 at 12:50 am

Delayed release of name/identity = Young, Arab, Male, Terrorist.

verbatim on January 25, 2010 at 4:01 am

Another installment of ‘Sweep it under the carpet. No one will notice.’

CaliforniaScreaming on January 25, 2010 at 7:21 am

While I have not seen this reported until recently, Michale Savage has been reporting for at least 2 years (possibly longer) of these dry runs where passengers charge the cockpit door.

I_AM_ME on January 25, 2010 at 8:04 am

Debbie,

Thanks for your kind words! I’m just glad I was there and available to assist.

Art Thomm on January 25, 2010 at 9:45 am

I’m sure the “drunk” was a muslim. Even if he wasn’t, I’m not real happy about anyone trying to get into the cockpit. I’m all for serious physical restraining techniques for ANYONE trying to get to the cockpit. These guys that did the restraining are heros. Too bad our citizens are forced to have to act on this stuff so often now that the community organizer is in charge with his pals like Eric Holder. Didn’t have this problem as often with Bush and his crew.
What if this flight didn’t have the guys with the balls in the plane. Real men better be on the look out for the rest of the sheeple these days.

Joe on January 25, 2010 at 10:13 am

Why have they yet to release his name ?

mablanco on January 25, 2010 at 10:39 am

tyler on January 24, 2010 at 9:02 pm wrote:

Way to take it to the “conservative” feminists debbie. You rock. All you palin fans leave this site alone, for us real patriots. Fox nations just a click away.

Nope Tyler, mind your own.

sharon on January 25, 2010 at 10:54 am

feminism’s ultimate destination is to destroy all natural love between a man and a woman by swapping mental gender roles…

howardroark on January 25, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Debbie, I know Sergei Sandou, who helped in taking the unruly passenger down and he is truly an extraordinary person even before becoming a “hero.” What we need is more real “men” like this in the world. After 9/11 the world changed for everybody. We can no longer just sit back and be victims. The important thing here is that people are now more aware of their surroundings. It matters not if this man was a terrorist or just a crazy person. The important thing here was someone was compromising the safety of everyone on that plane and there were men on board that had even guts to do something about it. I can only imagine how traumatized those the passengers were. I am also thankful that my friend came home safe…and a hero.

Susan Elsigian on January 25, 2010 at 2:27 pm

Where the hell are the FAMs that are supoosedly supposed to be on these flights? You should ask our leaders, Debbie, why off-duty federal agents are not allowed to fly armed when flying on personal travel. Figure that would be a no-brainer force multiplier, but leaders beg to differ.

fedupinlaandwantstoleave on January 25, 2010 at 3:39 pm

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