Passenger Alexander Michael Herrera tries to open Alaskan Airlines plane door mid-flight
NEWS LIMITED NETWORK MAY 28, 2013 2:10AM
A passenger on a commercial flight from Alaska to Oregon was arrested Monday after witnesses say he tried to open an emergency exit during the plane's descent.
Other passengers had to help restrain him using shoelaces and seat-belt extensions.
Passengers and crew aboard the Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Portland told investigators that 23-year-old Alexander Michael Herrera made "unusual statements" before trying to open the plane's door, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said.
Flight 132 was preparing to land at Portland International Airport when the Arizona man set off an alarm by pulling the door handle in the emergency-exit row, Steele said.
Witness Henry Pignataro told KGW-TV that a woman seated next to Herrera asked for help.
"I put him in a choke hold and brought him down to the ground," Mr Pignataro said.
Mr Pignataro said he and another man held down the passenger and asked flight attendants for restraints. He said they brought three sets of shoelaces, which Mr Pignataro and the other man used to bind Mr Herrera's legs.
The flight attendants then brought extra seatbelt extensions, and the witnesses applied those to Mr Herrera, as well.
Mr Pignataro said Mr Herrera - listed as 100kg in his booking information - was then placed into a seat, where he calmly sat "surrounded by big guys" until the plane landed only nine minutes behind schedule.
Mr Herrera was being booked into a Portland jail on a charge of interfering with a flight crew, and was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday before a federal magistrate.
Last edited:
