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A man on a Miami to Buenos Aires flight breaks a hole in the cockpit door before being subdued.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2002
BUENOS AIRES -- An unarmed passenger on a United Airlines flight from Miami to Buenos Aires tried to force his way into the cockpit Thursday, managing to kick out part of the door before a co-pilot clubbed him with an ax.
Other crew members and several passengers wrestled with Pablo Moreira, 28, and subdued him after a 10-minute struggle.
Moreira, a banker from Uruguay who was returning from a marketing course in the United States, was restrained for the remainder of the flight. A flight attendant received minor injuries in the struggle.
Moreira was arrested when Flight 855 landed safely in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, as scheduled at 10:30 a.m., said Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman in Miami. He was provided medical treatment.
The assailant appeared to be "mentally disturbed, drunk or drugged," said Jorge Reta, a spokesman for the Argentine air force, which administers the country's airports. "He doesn't remember what happened," Reta said.
In Washington, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Council, said that "no information at this time indicates it's a terrorist incident" but that the FBI was investigating.
The incident raised questions about access to airplane cockpits since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Airlines have reinforced their cockpit doors with metal bars but some passenger advocacy groups insisted Thursday that further steps are needed.
United spokeswoman Chris Nardella said Moreira kicked in a small ventilation panel across the bottom half of the door and managed to get his head inside the cockpit before the co-pilot hit him with the ax, leaving a two-inch gash on his head. Cockpits are equipped with small axes for emergencies.
Moreira began attacking the locked cockpit door with "kung-fu style" kicks five hours after the midnight flight left Miami, carrying 157 people, according to passenger Jan Boyer. Moreira shouted that he wanted to talk to the pilot as he rushed to the front of the plane, passengers said.
Traveler Lucia Tilia said that once Moreira was restrained, pilots used their belts to tie him down, later allowing him medical attention. "The pilots had to hit him to tie him down," she said.
United chairman and CEO Jack Creighton said the reinforced door helped prevent Moreira from entering completely into the cockpit. "The passenger never gained full entry," he said.
But David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger group, said Thursday's incident showed further security steps are needed beyond the single bar now being used by some airlines to strengthen cockpit doors.
"There are vulnerabilities in the system put in place involving a single bar across the door," he said. "By having a bar just in the middle of the door it enables a terrorist to kick in the bottom and maybe crawl into the cockpit or underneath the bar."
"Maybe they could put in additional bars," he said.
All cockpit doors have been reinforced in recent weeks, and the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring airlines to have fully redesigned doors by April 2003. The redesign is complicated because the doors will have to be strong enough to withstand bullets or intrusion but also ventilated to accommodate sudden cabin depressurization without causing structural damage to the plane.
In Washington, Homeland Security director Tom Ridge said Moreira did not breach the cockpit. "He tried to gain entry through the bottom of the cockpit door, but it had been a hardened cockpit and he did not," Ridge said.
Reta, the Argentine military spokesman, said Moreira later expressed remorse for his behavior, adding that a brother had said that Moreira "has a tendency to panic any time there is turbulence during a flight."
A spokeswoman for United, Susana Leyva, said she would not discuss whether Moreira had aroused suspicion before boarding the plane in Miami, except to say that "certain criteria make certain individuals go through extra layers of security" and that Moreira had received that additional attention.
FBI officials said they expected Moreira to be extradited overnight or this morning and charged with interfering with a flight crew. Any criminal charges would be filed in the U.S. court district where the plane carrying him lands, probably Miami.
Law enforcement officials said there was no evidence that Moreira, an employee at a bank in Montevideo, Uruguay, has any ties to known terrorist organizations.
United said flights to and from Argentina would continue as scheduled.
Thursday's incident marked the second time in less than two months that a passenger on a United flight bound for Buenos Aires created havoc on board. On Christmas Eve, a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York was diverted to Miami after a passenger threatened the crew and passengers and said they would die in a fireball.
The man, a 34-year-old Uruguayan who said he was a waiter, ignored orders to return to his seat and cursed the crew. After the plane arrived in Miami, he was taken into custody by FBI agents and charged with interfering with a flight crew.
-- Information from the Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.