Marshal: Flight suspect tried to open cockpit door
Tuesday - 5/10/2011, 9:17am ET By TERRY COLLINS and MARCUS WOHLSEN Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A man who was arrested after causing a disturbance on a San Francisco-bound American Airlines flight twice tried to open the cockpit door, the second time after a crew member told him that the restroom was to his left, a federal air marshal said in a court affidavit. Rageh Al-Murisi is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday on a charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. In the court affidavit filed on Monday, Air Marshal Paul Howard said after being told that wasn't the restroom, Al-Murisi made eye contact with the crew member, lowered his shoulder and rammed the door. The crew member told Howard he then got between Al-Murisi and the door, but Al-Murisi kept yelling and pushing forward in an attempt to open it, according to the affidavit. Al-Murisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., was subdued by the crew member and several passengers, including a retired Secret Service agent and a retired San Mateo police officer, and taken into custody after the flight landed safely around 9:10 p.m. Sunday at San Francisco International Airport, according to authorities. Al-Murisi went toward the cockpit door about 20 minutes before the flight from Chicago was supposed to land, according to Howard's affidavit. He was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant, witnesses said. Passengers said they sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco. He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door. "I kept saying to myself: `What's he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?'" passenger Angelina Marty said. Another shocked passenger, Andrew Wai, thought, "Could this be it? Are we going down?" Marty, 35, recalled Monday that she and other passengers on the plane were stunned when they saw Al-Murisi walking down the aisle. She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic interpreted that Al-Murisi said "God is Great!" in Arabic. Wai, 27, also remembered on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Al-Murisi down later said Al-Murisi was yelling the same: "Allahu Akbar." "There was no question in everybody's mind that he was going to do something," Marty said. While Al-Murisi has no clear or known ties to terrorism, authorities said, and investigators have not established a possible motive, the skirmish underscored fears that extremists might try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week. Federal agents are investigating Al-Murisi's background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card, authorities said. Yemen, a nation at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been a focus of U.S. officials because one of the most active branches of al-Qaida operates in the remote part of the country. A cousin of the suspect described him as an educated, easygoing person who had arrived in Northern California a year-and-a-half ago from Yemen in search of better opportunities. He was unable to find work in Vallejo, a town of 100,000 across the bay from San Francisco hit hard by the real estate bust, and recently moved to New York, where his brother lived, in search of better luck, said Rageh Almoraissi, 29, of Vallejo. Al-Murisi had not told his extended family in California that he was returning to the area, Almoraissi said. "He's very laid back, he's always smiling, he's always laughing. He's not an angry person," Almoraissi said. "Everybody's worried about him. It's not typical of him." Almoraissi said he could not imagine what might have caused his cousin to act as authorities allege he did on the plane, but was certain Al-Murisi was not a terrorist. He said his cousin did not show an interest in politics and was not intensely religious. "He might have seriously mistaken the cockpit for the bathroom," Almoraissi said. "He's only been on three planes in his whole life." Al-Murisi was taking classes in California to learn English but was not happy with his progress, his cousin said. (Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 9:18 AM, Beowulf <[email protected]> wrote: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/09/national/main20060992.shtml May 9, 2011 Midair security scares on 3 U.S. flights American Airlines passenger subdued, cuffed after banging on cockpit door day after 2 other flights diverted SAN FRANCISCO - Crew members and passengers wrestled a 28-year-old man to the cabin floor after he began pounding on the cockpit as an American Airlines flight approached San Francisco, the third security incident in a day on U.S. planes, authorities said Monday. The man was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant about 10 minutes before American Airlines Flight 1561 from Chicago was due at San Francisco International Airport Sunday night, Sgt. Michael Rodriguez of the San Francisco police said. He was identified as 28-year-old Rageit Almurisi. He carried a Yemen passport, but it wasn't clear if his nationality was also Yemeni, Rodgriguez said. Police said they don't know what Almurisi's motive was but said he has no clear or known ties to terrorism. [NB: He's a Muslim and was yelling "Allahu Akbar" the jihadi war cry. -B] A male flight attendant tackled the suspect, and other crew members aided as the suspect banged on the cockpit door. "He asked for help; a couple of passengers joined in," Rodriguez told The Associated Press. "They were able to get him to ground and a flight attendant put him in plastic handcuffs." The Boeing 737 carrying 162 people landed safely at 9:10 p.m. and the Almurisi was taken into police custody. He was charged with interfering with a flight crew, a federal offense. During the scuffle, Almurisi sustained some bruises and was checked at a hospital before being transported to San Mateo County Jail, the officer said. No one else on the plane was hurt and the airport continued operating normally with security levels unchanged, the officer said. It was the third disturbance of the day in U.S. airspace. A Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago diverted in St. Louis after a 34-year-old man from Illinois tried to open a plane door during the flight, officials said. Continental spokeswoman Julie King said Flight No. 546 landed around 1:30 p.m. and was grounded about an hour before resuming it journey. FBI and airport police questioned the passenger. No charges have been filed. Shortly before that, a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego was landed instead in Albuquerque, New Mexico, because of a security scare <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/08/national/main20060896.shtml> but authorities found "no suspicious devices" on the plane, an FBI spokesman said. Agency spokesman Frank Fisher declined to clarify the nature of the "potential security threat" that caused Flight 1706 to land in New Mexico. He said agents searched the plane and interviewed the crew and 107 passengers before clearing the aircraft to fly again. Albuquerque International Sunport spokesman Daniel Jiron also declined to say what the potential threat was. No one was arrested. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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