ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s a story that made national headlines: a plane was forced to make an emergency landing at the Sunport after a passenger tried opening a door midflight this year. Now, video has been obtained of the encounter police had with that unruly passenger and hearing from those who kept that man down until landing.
It was late February when an Albuquerque Police Department officer found himself on a plane at the International Sunport. While video shows the aircraft looks empty, there’s a specific passenger still on board the officer is looking for.
The passenger, who News 13 is not naming because of an ongoing investigation, is accused of trying to open the emergency door exit on an American Airlines flight from Albuquerque to Chicago. Video from inside shows passengers restraining the man midflight while the plane makes an emergency landing back at the Sunport.
Throughout the arrest, the video showed the man didn’t give the police any trouble.
Lapel video captured the officers interviewing flight staff and witnesses recalling the moment. “I had his arms and his legs. It didn’t feel like he was struggling. It could have just been adrenaline, too, of all of us just holding him down,” one witness said.
From the statements he made to investigators, the man was seemingly suffering from a mental health episode.
KRQE reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office about where the case stands on Monday:
DOJ policy prevents us from publicly commenting on or confirming the existence of criminal investigations before anyone is charged with a crime in order to protect the presumption of innocence and the prosecutorial process.
U.S. Attorney’s Office
