Man arrested after flight disturbance

OTHER passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly towards 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.

Within moments, a flight attendant had tackled Rageh Almurisi. Authorities have not yet found a motive for his behaviour.

“I kept saying to myself ‘What’s he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?’,” said passenger Angelina Marty.

Another shocked passenger, Andrew Wai, thought: “Could this be it? Are we going down?”

While the 28-year-old, of Vallejo, California, has no known ties to terrorism, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks in retaliation for the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last week.

Almurisi is in federal custody and federal agents are investigating his background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card.

There were two other mid-air disturbances elsewhere on Sunday.

A 34-year-old man from Illinois tried to open a plane door on a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago. He was questioned but no charges were filed.

There was a security scare on a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego, forcing it to land in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Authorities said “no suspicious devices” were found, further details were not released. No one was arrested.