Air marshals arrest man on US Airways flight
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A plane was diverted Saturday after air marshals arrested a passenger after he began shouting "Majority rules! Turn the plane around!" and walked toward an exit door during a flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport to New Orleans.
Richard Perez, 30, of Bay Shore, New York, was arrested and taken to a hospital after the plane landed at Charlotte, North Carolina, said Robert Johnson, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.
Johnson said crew members had told Perez to sit down after he walked toward the front of the plane and started yelling 45 minutes after taking off at 8:10 a.m. He returned to his seat, then got up and shouted again as he headed for an exit door before three passengers and an air marshal intervened, Johnson said.
"It took one air marshal and three off-duty police officers to subdue this guy," he said.
The other air marshal made sure the passengers remained calm, Johnson said. Perez was not armed.
Michelle Duffourc, spokeswoman of the New Orleans international airport, said the rest of the passengers on US Airways flight 739 made it to New Orleans at noon.
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