Another Use Found For Yoga Strap!

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SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/190383_passenger11.html

Passengers help subdue unruly man on flight
Saturday, September 11, 2004

By ERIC NALDER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

ST. LOUIS -- An unruly passenger on an American Airlines flight from Seattle to St. Louis had to be handcuffed and strapped to his seat with the help of several passengers yesterday.

The pilot, Mark Harpster, considered making an emergency landing of Flight 2006, but told passengers over the intercom that he had decided to continue to St. Louis when the restraints seemed to keep the man under control.

The flight left Seattle's Concourse A at 7:20 a.m. and landed in St. Louis at 12:50 p.m. CDT.

The passenger, an unidentified man in his 20s with a crew cut and wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, smelled of alcohol and was letting out whooping sounds as he walked down the ramp in Seattle to board the plane, said one passenger, Air Force Tech Sgt. Raymond Smith, 35, of Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

Smith, who recently served in the Persian Gulf, immediately warned the crew that the man might pose a problem and then volunteered to sit in the same row to watch over him.

More than an hour into the flight, after a flight attendant had tried to calm the man, it was clear that he might get out of his seat and cause problems.

Smith, who is 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, helped the flight attendant handcuff the man, who became agitated and tried to break free.

Several other male passengers rushed to help, including 6-foot-4, 240-pound Army Sgt. C. Sabathne of Fort Lewis, who recently returned from combat duty in Iraq and was seated across the aisle from Smith.

The handcuffed passenger, seated by the window behind the first-class bulkhead, threatened his seatmate, Smith.

"He was cursing and threatening," Sabathne -- formerly with the 82nd Airborne Division and now with the 164th Maintenance Unit at Fort Lewis -- told a reporter who was also on the flight.

"He said he'll kill us, track us down and kill us," said Smith, who is with the Office of Special Investigations.

When one set of plastic handcuffs didn't hold the man down well enough, Smith and other passengers applied a second pair.

When that wasn't enough, a passenger provided a strap she uses for yoga exercises so he could be tied to his seat.

"I'm just glad I had my yoga strap along with me," said Leslie Voetter, a director for GE Aircraft Engines in Boeing Military Programs in St. Louis.

Sea-Tac Airport spokesman Bob Parker said yesterday that police were not called to the gate to deal with the passenger before Flight 2006 departed.

In general, he said, it is not the role of the Port of Seattle police force to bar rowdy passengers from flying. That judgment call generally falls to the airline, he said.

Very rarely, said Parker, screeners from the Transportation Security Administration will stop unruly passengers, not even letting them into the gate area.

Spokesmen for the TSA and American Airlines could not be reached for comment yesterday.

An FBI agent and St. Louis airport police took the man off the plane while passengers remained seated. He likely would be charged with interfering with a flight crew, a federal felony, FBI agent Hank Vera said. If convicted, the man faces up to 20 years in prison.

No one was injured.

P-I reporter Sam Skolnik contributed to this report. P-I reporter Eric Nalder can be reached at 206-448-8011 or ericnalder@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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