Man Arrested for Lighting Battery on AA Flight
Another day, another divert...
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"After an incident where someone tried to light his shoes on fire, I'm sure that everyone's taking every precaution to make sure that flights are safe..."
Flame lands flier in jail
Man held after trying to recharge battery with lighter
Ray Delgado, [SFO] Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, August 21, 2002
A seemingly innocent attempt at recharging a battery using the flame of a cigarette lighter has landed a 22-year-old Santa Clara man in serious trouble with federal authorities after his actions prompted an American Airlines flight headed to San Francisco to divert to another city.
San Jose State University student Maxim Segalov was charged this morning with interfering with a flight crew before a U.S. District Court magistrate in Salt Lake City. He faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines stemming from the Tuesday afternoon incident.
FBI spokesman George Bougherty said crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 781 from Chicago to San Francisco became concerned when they saw Segalov using a cigarette lighter to heat up some AA batteries.
"At the time no one knew exactly what he was trying to do," Bougherty said. "If you're lighting a cigarette lighter on an airplane, anything can catch on fire. Once you get a fire on an aircraft, it's kind of a spooky thing."
Bougherty said Segalov willingly turned over the lighter and batteries to crew members and made no threats. But the pilot diverted the flight to Salt Lake City so the incident could be investigated.
"After an incident where someone tried to light his shoes on fire, I'm sure that everyone's taking every precaution to make sure that flights are safe," said Bougherty, referring to the December arrest of a man who tried to ignite explosives in his tennis shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami.
American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke said the pilot of the aircraft made a good decision based on an unknown threat.
"When the crew was alerted to what we consider was unusual behavior, the pilot made a decision to land the aircraft and have the situation evaluated," Burke said. "The captain's primary responsibility is to secure the aircraft and protect all passengers on board."
Flight 781 left Chicago at 11 a.m. local time with 108 passengers on board and made its unscheduled landing in Salt Lake City at 1:40 p.m. local time. It was not an emergency landing, Burke said.
FBI agents escorted Segalov and his male traveling companion off the flight to be interviewed and the plane was searched for any signs of wrongdoing. The flight left Salt Lake City two hours later without Segalov and his companion and landed at San Francisco International Airport just before 5 p.m.
Bougherty said Segalov's companion was questioned and released and took a later flight back to the Bay Area.
Segalov was placed under arrest after FBI agents consulted with the U.S. Attorney's office. Bougherty said Segalov was very cooperative with investigators and told them he was only trying to recharge the battery by heating it.
U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch said it is possible that the charges against Segalov could be reduced or dismissed after a further investigation. But for now authorities are taking the matter seriously.
"All of (the mitigating circumstances) will be taken into consideration," Rydalch said. "The U.S. attorney is a very reasonable person, but for now he (Segalov) was charged with interference with a flight crew."
Stanford University chemistry professor emeritus John Ross said that batteries require electricity to be recharged, not heat. He also said that lighting a battery on fire could lead to a small explosion that releases some toxic chemicals but it would be no threat to an airborne plane.
"It just raises havoc," Ross said. "The airlines should be concerned about that but it's not going to blow up a plane."