Can Airport Security Deal With Non-Terrorist Outbursts?

Jan. 14, 2010— -- No terrorist attempts have surfaced since President Obama's call for a surge in airplane security and air marshals following the alleged attempt on Christmas Day to bomb a commercial airline flight, but alert personnel have already caught the inevitable misunderstood outbursts and confrontations with passengers while on the lookout for terrorists.

Last week Mansor Asad, 43, was taxiing on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight leaving Miami International Airport when he allegedly said he wanted to "kill all the Jews," according to police.

Asad had no weapon and made no specific threat to the crew, but his outburst was more than enough to prompt his removal from the flight and for police to conduct a security sweep.

His son, Mickey Asad, 27, of Toledo Ohio, said that his father had bipolar disorder, but he believes the incident had to do with a misunderstanding and tensions escalated because of people's fear flying today.

"With the way things are in the world right now, you expect that. Everyone's alert and everyone's just waiting for it," said Asad.

Once off the flight, Asad was Tasered twice in a scuffle with police officers, allegedly telling one, "I'm not afraid of you cops, I've gotten in fights with cops in Ohio and broke their arms in three places," according to police reports.

The incident is just one of several security snafus testing the increased security measures following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

On Jan. 6, security officials sent two F-15 fighter jets to escort a Portland, Ore.-bound flight from Hawaii after officials said a passenger filled out a "distrubing" comment card and wanted to remain close to his carry on bag. The card asked "what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight," and made references to the 1960s TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island," according to Associated Press reports.

Discerning Which Threats Are Terrorists

While increased security is intended to catch a terrorist, history shows it will also catch a significant number of disturbed but innocuous outbursts from angry passengers or those suffering from mental illness.

The Transportation Security Association and at least one airline that responded to interview requests from ABCNews.com have said air marshals and flight attendants are trained to handle emotional outbursts of people suffering from mental illness.

Nelson Minerla, Federal Air Marshal spokesman, said all federal air marshals "receive training in sensitivity and awareness," including practiced scenarios that range from a 9-11 style hijacking to an "emotionally disturbed" person or a drunk and disorderly person.

Federal Air Marshal Training To Understand the Mentally Ill

"Claustrophobia is a very common one," said Minerla. "They [air marshals] are made aware of these different conditions that they may encounter."

However, when it comes to calming down an emotionally disturbed person on a flight, Minerla said air marshals try to remain undercover until it seems the situation is out of the flight attendants' control.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines Corp. did not respond to ABCNews.com's requests for interviews.

However, an American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said in an e-mail that "Our flight attendants are trained, during both their initial and recurrent training to deal with all types of disruptive passengers. For security reasons, we do not disclose or discuss the methodologies."

Who is In Charge of a Budding Mental Health Crisis?

"Flight attendants are the primary point of contact for the passengers, obviously because we are undercover," said Minerla. "In an explosive situation, federal air marshals will respond, they might have to intervene for the safety of the public."

In total, Minerla said the training to be a federal air marshal lasts for about 16 weeks.

But advocacy groups said it takes specialized courses to truly discern an outburst related to a mental illness or the effects of intoxication, from criminal intent.

Indeed, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has encouraged the TSA and other airport security personnel to undergo 40 hours of specialized training since a deadly incident at the Miami International Airport in 2005.

When a Mental Health Crisis Turns to Tragedy

Rigoberto Alpizar was traveling with his wife on a flight home from a missionary trip when he reportedly started showing signs of distress, according to a Florida State Attorney memorandum.

Alpizar, then 44, broke down shortly after he and his wife boarded a flight from Miami to Orlando, and became convinced he needed to exit the plane before it took off because a bomb was on board.

Two air marshals were alerted just as Alpizar raced toward the front of the plane wearing his backpack. Eye witnesses said his wife, Anne Buechner, shouted out "he's sick." But when Alpizar didn't immediately obey commands to "get down," the marshals fatally shot him outside the plane.

It's a situation that Edward Coburn, 40, felt lucky to avoid when he became delusional on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago shortly after 9-11.

"They actually told my parents they would have shot me for sure if there was an air marshal on board," said Coburn.

Delusional People Have Been Caught on Airplanes in the Past

On Oct 8, 2001, Coburn boarded a plan with his father, who had come to bring him to his home state of Indiana after his first serious breakdown with bipolar disorder.

"I was very sick," said Coburn. "People with bipolar disorder can get delusional. ... So for instance if you have a police officer saying 'get on the ground or I'll shoot,' the person with mental illness may think they want them to do something else. And they really believe it."

About an hour before landing in Chicago, Coburn said he got it into his head that hijackers were going to crash the plane into the Sears Tower. His father even alerted the flight crew that Coburn had a problem.

"I thought there were hijackers on the plane, and I was thinking of a million ways about how the plane was going to be attacked. One of the ways was that the American Airlines pilot was a hijacker," he said.

Convinced that a hijacker, embedded as a pilot, had already killed everyone else in the cockpit, Coburn decided he was going to act.

"I ran up and basically did a football tackle on the door... and everything was OK. I was surprised that there were three people. I thought there was just one pilot [left]," he said.

Coburn said at the time he didn't think that perhaps it was his illness at work. Instead he was convinced the hijackers must be elsewhere on the plane.

"That's when some people jumped me on my back, and I was sure that they were hijackers," he said. Nearly a half hour of screaming ensued as he struggled with the fellow passengers. Coburn said for the next six months that he spent in prison, he was convinced that the hijackers got away.

Finally, when he was convinced to go back on medication, Coburn reasoned that it was him, not a hijacker, who was the threat. He was charged with the felony of interference with the flight crew and found not guilty by reason of insanity more than a year later.

"Once I had the medicine in my body I could reason that there weren't any hijackers. It really only took a couple of days," he said.

Given his experience, and that the National Institute of Mental Health estimates 6 percent of the population suffers from serious mental illness at any given time, Coburn argued that more should be done to prepare for delusional outbursts.

Working to Treat Mental Illness Crises on Site

"Mental illness has a huge stigma, and it makes people who have it not want to talk about it but that makes it seem like it's not a big problem," said Coburn. "It's a big problem and a few of them are going to be on planes."

Since his experience Coburn now speaks for NAMI, encouraging police officers and "basically anybody" about the need for a collaborative Crisis Intervention Team training, or CIT.

Retired Maj.Sam Cochran helped develop the CIT program after an incident in Memphis in which police officers shot and killed a mentally ill man. The program involves police officers, mental health professionals and members of the community and has spread to police departments nationwide.

"Whatever you want to do, you want to do it the right way at the beginning of the situation," Cochran said.

Cochran said it is also key to have one person with extensive training leading the situation when security officers or police are called. The goal, Cochran said, is to use tactics to calm a person down and lead them out of their crisis.

"That may sound easy, but that can be very difficult depending on the crises that individual is in," he said.

While there's no certain way to tell whether a person is mentally unstable or not in a gven situation. But Cochran said there are clues: "It's what they're doing with their hands, what they're doing with their face, what mannerism they have.

"The worst thing to do is to contribute to the crises is to escalate fear further and further," said Cochran. "That takes talent skills, patience and training for sure."

ABC News' Lisa Stark, Scott Mayerowitz, Eileen Murphy and Kate McCarthy contributed to this report.