When a hysterical passenger aboard a Hawaii-bound flight made a dash for the cockpit, two Jersey City police officers heading to a wedding tackled and guarded him until touchdown before turning him over to authorities, officials said.
"They are two fine, outstanding officers and they carry on in the fine tradition of the Jersey City Police Department," said South District Commander Charles Nierstedt of officers Paul Fennel and Robert Taino Jr., who were on U.S. Airways Flight 20 from Phoenix, Ariz., to Honolulu when the man "apparently went crazy."
Taino said the flight was about two hours out of Honolulu at about 6:30 p.m. yesterday when they realized there might be a problem and they told the crew that they were cops.
Flight attendants were scurrying about and no one was being served, Taino told Lt. Edgar Martinez. Moments later flight attendants ran to the back of the plane with an oxygen tank for the man, Martinez said.
Next, the cops saw a man in a sweater having a panic attack and saying he had to get off the plane and was going to try to get off at 40,000 feet, Martinez said Taino told him.
All of a sudden the head flight attended had other flight attendants station themselves at all exit doors and by then, the man had no shirt on, was waving his hands in the air and screaming "He's got a gun. Who's gonna shoot me me?" Martinez said.
"Stop him!" yelled the head flight attendant as the man bolted toward the cockpit and the two Jersey City officers, along with two passengers, tackled him at the front of the plane and held him down, Taino told Martinez.
A flight attendant gave Taino a set of plastic wrist restraints and the cops cuffed the man and led him to the rear of the plane, where they watched him until the wheels touched down, Martinez said.
They turned the man over to agents of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Honolulu Sheriffs Department at the gate, Martinez said.
The cops were on their way to Honolulu to attend the wedding of a Jersey City police sergeant, Martinez said. Today all three officers are visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
Taino is a recipient of the police department's Combat Cross award and Fennel is a recipient of an departments Excellent Police Service award, Martinez said.
U.S. Airways spokesman Andrew Christie said the airline has no comment on the incident, which is in the hands of law enforcement. The FBI has not replied to an email seeking information on the man and whether charges have been filed against him.
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