US soldier subdued on Florida flight !!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: Yahoo.com
Published: July 7, 2006 Author: Robert Green



TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier recently returned from Iraq tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Tampa-bound Delta Air Lines jet and was subdued by other passengers, Tampa International Airport officials said on Friday.

The 24-year-old man was undergoing mental evaluation at a Tampa hospital and the FBI was investigating whether charges should be filed, airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.

The man, Neftali Alexander Laimendez, was flying with his brother to see their mother in Tampa and to seek medical attention, Geoghagan said.

As the flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport approached Tampa on Thursday night, he ignored flight attendants' instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt, and ran up the aisle of the plane and into the first class cabin, Geoghagan said.

"As he is running, he is ramming the cockpit door, falling on the aisle, getting up and repeatedly doing this," she said. "Three or four of the passengers restrained him and held him on the floor."

Airport police arrested him after the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 landed. Laimendez was unarmed and wearing civilian clothes, according to investigators who said his intent was unclear.

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation under a law that allows people to be held involuntarily for 72 hours if they are considered a threat to themselves or others, Geoghagan said.

Laimendez is a U.S. soldier who had recently returned to the United States from Iraq, and his term of service was to end on July 12, Geoghagan said.

Cockpit doors on all U.S. airliners have been reinforced and locked since the September 11 hijackings.

"The hardening of the cockpit door worked," said airport Executive Director Louis Miller, who praised the passengers who tackled and subdued Laimendez.

"They're absolute heroes," he said in a teleconference with reporters. "They got this incident under control. No one overreacted, no one was hurt."

(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton in Miami)