A United Flight from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Seattle (SEA) had to be diverted to Pittsburgh(PIT) because of an unruly passenger on Sunday.
The flight, which had been scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 21:30, did not arrive until 23:21.
There are no details as to why the man had to be removed, but one source has said there was a Sky Marshal on board United Flight 917 with 182 passengers and 8 crew members.
The flight, which had been scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 21:30, did not arrive until 23:21.
3 comments:
I had a friend on that flight that I was to pick up at the airport in Seattle. I talked to a number of people on board, and there was a lot more to this incident than the press is talking about!
It seems that man, the man who press identifies as Michael L. Holland, 46, had his penis out and was masterbating. He then began to fondle the person next to him.
A woman who was sitting directly behind him told me that originally the person he molested was a young child, whose mother was sitting across the aisle from the child and Holland. The girl began screaming, and then another male passenger began yelling "he's masterbating, he's masterbating!"
When Holland refused to stop, someone actually picked up the child and tossed her over the seat into the seats behind her to get her away from the man. At that point, the mother jumped on Holland.
There were TWO sky marshalls on the plane, who wrestled with the man for quite some time in the aisles before they could get him cuffed and subdued.
In the meanwhile, the plane took a steep nosedive, heading down towards the Pittsburgh airport for an emergency landing.
From my friend's viewpoint in the other part of the plane, all she heard was someone yelling, a child screaming, and saw the marshalls tackle Holland. She originally thought there was a bomb on board, which was not true.
There was a lot of noise and commotion on the plane, which was quite frightening everyone on board. My friend said that she had never seen such a look of panic in the eyes of the stewardesses, who later told her that in all their years flying they had never experienced something like this incident.
Holland was left in Pittsburgh, along with the man who first identified the molestation (the one who yelled. One person I talked to stated the mother and child disembarked there too.
The plane was held up for several hours on the tarmac, as authorities were unsure of who was in charge, local or federal.
Finally the FBI was called and they took jurisdiction. Witnesses were interviewed by them, and finally the plane left with the rest of the passengers on board to travel uneventfully on to Seattle.
The press interviewed the passengers while they were waiting for their baggage to arrive, which is where I obtained this information by listening in, and by talking to several passengers myself.
In this day of terrorism, I can imagine what was going through everyone's head.
An emergency descent is akin to an "A-Ride" at Disneyland. Only this ride goes on for about 30,000 feet. I can imagine that they thought the plane was going to crash into some building in a huge ball of flame.
--->RANT ALERT<---
The airlines were so quick to ban smoking on flights for "safety reasons", yet they continue to serve alcohol in airport bars and on flights.
I once fly First Class from PDX to LAS. The entire flight, I had some guy bashing my head going "Hey dooooode, didja see that?" for some inconsequential view. Had there been an emergencyon the flight, I had determined that his life was expendable and my size 8's would leave their imprint on him as I was exiting.
BAN ALCOHOL from airport bars and all flights.
>This concludes this RANT ALERT<
Update: Well, when I'm wrong, I'll be the first to admit it. According to news sources, "There was no alcohol on his breath, and when he was interviewed he said he hadn't had a drink for five years," Hresko said. "We have no reason to believe that he was drunk or on any kind of narcotic."
I still stand by my rant and believe that alcohol is a safety issue on flights.
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