From the Miami Herald:
Posted on Thu, Feb. 07, 2002 . . . .Co-pilot wields ax to stop cockpit invastion on Miami-Buenos Aires flight
BY MARTIN MERZER, INA PAIVA CORDLE AND DAVID KIDWELL
[email protected]
The intruder kicked in the bottom of the jumbo jet's cockpit door and stuck his head through the hole. ''I want to talk to the captain,'' he said.
The co-pilot whacked him in the head with the blunt end of an ax. The passengers tackled him. The pilot reached into his United Airlines cap and pulled out plastic handcuffs. A doctor administered a sedative.
For the second time in seven weeks, passengers and crew members aboard a Miami jetliner leaped into action Thursday, coalesced into a corps of volunteers and subdued a man who produced havoc in the sky.
United Flight 855 from Miami to Buenos Aires landed safely at the Argentine capital's Ezeiza International Airport without further incident after a man attempted to kick in the cockpit door ''kung fu style'' and force his way in.
The suspect -- Pablo Moreira, 28, a Uruguayan bank employee from Montevideo who had been taking a marketing course in the Florida Keys -- was held by Argentine police. Federal agents planned to bring him back to Miami this morning and charge him with interfering with a flight crew.
He did not carry a weapon and had no apparent link to terror groups, authorities said. The motive was not known, but authorities said he consumed an undetermined amount of alcohol before and possibly during the flight.
''It's incredible,'' said Jorge Reta, a spokesman for the Argentine Air Force. "He doesn't remember anything, and I don't believe he really understands the impact of what he has done.
"His brother said he often becomes upset when there is turbulence, and passengers told us he had been drinking a lot on the plane. But when I asked him about it, he told me he had one whiskey prior to getting on the plane.''
One passenger said Moreira lit a cigarette while waiting for the flight at Miami International Airport, a smoke-free facility, and resisted for three minutes when told by airline employees to extinguish it.
Moreira was treated at the Buenos Aires airport for a scalp wound, authorities said. An unidentified flight attendant sustained minor injuries.
The other 141 passengers and 14 members of the Miami-based crew were unharmed, though they had quite a story to tell about an experience aboard a Boeing 777 jumbo jet that evolved from an overnight red-eye flight into what they thought was a struggle for survival.
''I was sleeping in the first class section and I was awakened by some shouting by one of the stewardesses and by some loud pounding noises,'' passenger Jan Boyer told CNN. "So I woke up and . . . I faced an individual who was basically kicking the door of the cockpit in sort of a kung fu style.
'I said, `What are you doing?' And he said, 'I want to talk to the captain.' ''
The intruder gained partial entry by breaking through a bottom ''blowout'' panel of the door, said Chris Brathwaite, a United spokesman.
When the man stuck his head through, the co-pilot clubbed him with an ax used by pilots to exit an aircraft in an emergency.
''It looks like something out of Gladiator,'' said Herb Hunter, a Miami-based captain for United, who lives in Coral Springs and often pilots Flight 855. "It's a very evil looking weapon.''
The ax, kept on the back wall of the cockpit, is 15 to 18 inches long. A six-inch blade is affixed to the top; a spike is attached to the bottom.
''He is lucky,'' Hunter said of Moreira. "If it had been my flight, I would have put the spike in his head. If someone comes in that door, he'd better be ready to die.''
United Airlines executives emphasized that the intruder never made it completely into the cockpit. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration required airlines to install steel bars on cockpit doors to prevent unauthorized entry.
''The system worked,'' Brathwaite said.
The flight, which originated in San Francisco, took off from Miami shortly after midnight Thursday. Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman in Miami, said the incident began about four hours later, as the plane was over Brazil.
Boyer, the passenger, said that a flight attendant sounded the alarm through the intercom, ordering all crew members to the front of the plane.
He said he and other passengers also responded and tackled the man. The co-pilot swung the ax. The pilot, taking a rest break in the first class section, tugged on the man's legs and pulled him back into the cabin.
''There was a lot of blood all over the place,'' Boyer told CNN. "That allowed us to drag him out.''
The crew and passengers wrestled the man to the business class section. The pilot took off his cap and produced a set of plastic handcuffs, Boyer said.
Hunter, the Miami-based captain and a spokesman for the United Airlines unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, said many pilots and co-pilots now carry handcuffs that wrap around the inside of their caps. Some also carry an extra set in their flight bags, he said.
Boyer said he and others used spare seat belts to tie Moreira into a seat. Federal sources said a doctor on board the plane administered a sedative to calm Moreira.
Boyer said he spoke with the man later, but didn't learn much.
''I mentioned to him that I had spent my life thinking about international economic relations and how Sept. 11 had affected that, and was this due to any of this at all?'' Boyer said. 'The only thing he mentioned to me is, `Things are different now.' ''
Reta, the Argentine official, said Moreira had been attending a marketing course in the Miami area. Another source said the course was held at the Hawk's Cay resort near Marathon in the Florida Keys. Federal sources confirmed that Moreira entered the country Jan. 31 to attend a seminar.
Reta described Moreira as an average-sized man who lives in ''a nice residential neighborhood in Montevideo,'' the capital and largest city of Uruguay. He has no criminal past, works at ABN Amro bank, is married and has two children, friends and authorities said.
''He is really in trouble,'' Reta said. "I don't think he realizes what's happening.''
Federal officials said that, if convicted of interfering with a flight crew, Moreira could be given probation or up to eight years in jail, assuming he has no prior record.
Though apparently unrelated to terrorism, the incident bore striking similarities to a Dec. 22 attempt to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. In that event, flight attendants and passengers subdued a man who was attempting to detonate bombs hidden in his shoes.
Richard Reid, a 28-year-old British citizen, was charged with attempting to murder the 197 passengers and crew members aboard that plane. Authorities said Reid has links to the al Qaeda terrorist network. He is awaiting trial in Boston.
In another incident, a Uruguayan passenger created a commotion aboard a United flight to Argentina on Christmas day.
Rodrigo Pedro Deambrosio, 34, allegedly forced Flight 979 from New York to Buenos Aires to divert to Miami, where he was arrested. Authorities said he became belligerent, urinated on a row of seats and claimed that everyone would die. He has been indicted in Miami on several charges and is free on bond.
Still, it was the earlier attempt to destroy the American Airlines flight and the people aboard it that dominated the thoughts of those aboard United Flight 855 Thursday. Once again, however, the crew and the passengers of a jetliner rose to the occasion.
Said Boyer: "It was really a magnificent team effort.''