A man loudly ranted about national security, the CIA and international spying while on a flight from Hong Kong to the US on Monday, causing passengers to tackle him and bind his hands and feet.
Passengers said the FBI met United Airlines Flight 116 as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the major airports serving New York City, and escorted the man away.
The man’s name has not been released, but passengers described him as American. Passengers said he started screaming about nine hours into the 15-hour flight about being afraid of the FBI and fearing he was going to be killed. He asked that the flight be diverted to Canada.
“He was clearly not stable,” said passenger Jacques Roizen, who helped wrestle the man to the floor and sat in the same row as him after he was restrained. Roizen said he and other passengers and a flight attendant subdued the man when he started reaching for his pockets.
United said it followed its procedures for dealing with disruptive passengers and decided to continue the flight as scheduled.
Passenger Peter Jones said the passenger called out what he said was his name, his birth date and his Social Security number several times and said he worked for the US embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Jones said the man claimed to have information about Edward Snowden, a former US government contractor who leaked a once-secret National Security Agency surveillance programme two weeks ago.