Thursday February 7 1:25 PM ET
Man Tries to Enter Cockpit on Flight to Argentina
By Stephen Brown
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - An apparently drunken, unarmed Uruguayan passenger tried to force himself into the locked cockpit a United Airlines flight from Miami to Argentina on Thursday before pilots hit him with an ax and tied him up.
The 28-year-old man, said by Argentine authorities to have drunk whiskey before the flight, kicked down one panel of the cockpit door demanding to see the captain and got part of his body in before being overpowered by the crew and passengers.
The man, identified as Pablo Moreira, was arrested when the Boeing 777 carrying 142 passengers and 15 crew landed safely in Buenos Aires. But the incident alarmed other passengers and may raise new concerns about safety after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (news - web sites).
Cockpit doors on big U.S. jetliners have been reinforced with metal bars since the September attacks, when suspected hijackers apparently gained entrance to the flight decks of four planes, two of them United jets.
Another passenger on United Airlines Flight 855, Jan Boyer, told CNN that the man had managed to break down part of the lower half of the door by ``kicking in a Kung Fu style.''
``The cockpit door is divided into two sections and the lower section actually opens up and isn't protected by the barriers that they had put in,'' said Boyer. ``He had actually inserted himself ... his torso into the cockpit.''
But the pilots inside ``used an ax that they have in the cockpit to basically hit him bluntly on the head. This led to a lot of blood all over the place,'' said Boyer.
The small panel on the cockpit door is designed to pop out in case of an aircraft pressurization emergency.
United Airlines' Chairman Jack Creighton commended the crew for ``quick action'' and said Moreira ``never gained full entry due to the reinforced cockpit door bar United has installed on all of its fleet.''
In Miami, FBI (news - web sites) spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the plane left Miami around midnight and the incident occurred about five hours later over Brazil.
``The worst moment was when I heard the voice of the captain, who sounded desperate, asking for help,'' said one passenger at the airport, a 50-year-old Argentine woman who identified herself only as Lucia.
The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) ordered the industry last month to install new cockpit doors to resist intrusion and certain gunfire and explosives on more than 6,000 commercial jets.
The government gave airlines 18 months to make the changes, which include mandatory locking devices only accessible to the pilots. The cockpit upgrades are expected to cost the industry at least $100 million.
Separately, U.S. aviation regulators have proposed new training guidelines to help flight crews, including flight attendants, deal with potential hijackers and unruly passengers.
The U.S. government also is considering a proposal to let cockpit crews carry stun-guns. Axes are kept in cockpits in case pilots have to evacuate in an emergency.
Jorge Reta, spokesman for the Argentine air force, said the man was being held in custody and ``feels sorry for what he did and admitted he had drunk whiskey before boarding the plane.''
The FBI said Moreira, identified as a bank employee, would be taken back to Miami and probably charged with ``interference with a flight crew.''
