Posted on: Monday, September 15, 2003

Airline passengers help restrain disruptive man

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A Texas man who disrupted a United Airlines flight from Hawai'i was subdued with the help of passengers and duct tape, authorities said yesterday.

No one was reported injured, said Sgt. Carl Sansbury of the Los Angeles International Airport police.

Brian Kane Eager, 36, of Austin, was held for 72 hours for a psychological examination, FBI Special Agent Matt McLaughlin said.

Flight 54 left Honolulu for Los Angeles at about 8:50 p.m. Saturday. About 90 minutes after takeoff, the man got out of his seat and began talking and wandering the aisle, passenger Joseph Gugerty said.

"He was pacing and reading the Bible," said Gugerty who was returning to Kentucky, where he is chief of communications in The Associated Press' Louisville bureau.

"They let him wander back and forth in the plane until he started to move forward," Gugerty said. "Then they surrounded him and pushed him to the floor."

About a half-dozen passengers were involved, he said.

"He becomes agitated. A baby starts crying. He says he has to go help the baby and pushes his way past the flight attendant," McLaughlin said. "He was not trying to gain access to the flight deck."

Passengers and a federal immigration and customs agent who was traveling for personal reasons helped restrain the man but he managed to slip out of handcuffs, McLaughlin said.

The agent then used duct tape to restrain him, and the man was turned over to local police when the plane landed in Los Angeles at about 4:45 a.m., authorities said.

He could face a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew, Sansbury said.