A passenger was deplaned from an American Airlines Flight at Miami International on Monday, after running onto the aircraft and claiming he was in the FBI.
The man, who has not been identified, bypassed the gate agent and ran straight onto the plane. Ari Teman, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 1060, witnessed the situation, and posted about it on his Facebook profile:
I was on a flight to NYC (American Airlines 1060 to EWR) and a guy ran into the plane screaming that it was his plane and he’s FBI. The crew called for security, who had to take him off. The business class passengers blocked him from getting further into the plane… Then the Captain gets on and says they “think the guy was a decoy to distract from something else” and they need to search everyone and all bags and the plane.
Around 8 Miami police officers arrested and tackled the man outside Gate D3 in the terminal, Teman said, and that they had to “fight him hard to get him cuffed”:
He was shouting in English and I think Spanish. But it seemed like a fake, controlled outburst. Like a toddler fakes a tantrum. He seemed lucid and controlled, not manic or schizophrenic.
Temanm uploaded videos of the man being arrested and taken away on his Twitter:
Deplaned, arrested @AmericanAir 1060 MIA-EWR pic.twitter.com/PzecReBPHx
— Ari Teman (@AriTeman) October 7, 2019
Video of police taking arrested "decoy" away. #aa1060. AA "can't give exact departure time". Needs full security scan. pic.twitter.com/hBfs2aHNbi
— Ari Teman (@AriTeman) October 7, 2019
Teman said that a few minutes after the man was taken away, “the PA system asked for a ‘Mohammad Edu’ to come to security for a missing item.”
American Airlines released a statement about the incident:
During the boarding process of American Airlines flight 1060 from Miami to Newark, a ticketed passenger for that flight ran on the jet bridge, bypassing the gate agent… Law enforcement was summoned, who removed the passenger.
The man has since been hospitalised under Florida’s Baker Act Law. Passengers were allowed back onto the plane after a security sweep was conducted.
