Passengers Subdue Unruly Passenger in the Air

Oct. 9, 2001 -- When a hysterical passenger stormed the cockpit door and a plane headed to Chicago from Los Angeles dropped and swerved violently, the 162 passengers on board thought their worst nightmare was coming true.

"Immediately, everyone thought that we were going to crash and that a terrorist had taken over the plane," said Carviz Carlos, a Chicago nurse who was on board American Airlines Flight 1238. Carlos was on his way home after visiting relatives in Los Angeles.

Almost as quickly as that fear passed through passengers' already tense minds, two pilots and four passengers stormed into action. They subdued Edward Coburn, 30, who had been screaming, "We are going to crash into the Sears Tower!"

"No one thought twice," Carlos said in a telephone interview. "They just acted and they didn't waste a second. They just went up and tackled him."

Passengers Thought it Was a Terrorist Attack

It was three hours into the four-hour flight and the plane was only about 40 minutes from Chicago on Monday when witnesses said Coburn stormed the cockpit, yelling, "We are going to crash the Sears Tower like they did the World Trade Center!"

Coburn was able to get into the cockpit and disturb the pilot. The Boeing 767 swooped, turning first left and then right.

Both passengers and crew members thought with horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings, Carlos said.

"Everyone on the plane was saying that they thought it was a terrorist and then everyone started pulling out cell phones and started calling people and saying their goodbyes," he said.

A flight attendant told passengers, "Get that guy!" and "four big men jumped to action," Carlos said. With the help of the two pilots, they were able to pin Coburn down.

A voice was then heard on the loudspeaker telling passengers that "there was a situation" and asking if there was a doctor or nurse on board.

Carlos, a nurse at Chicago's Advocate Home Health, had been sitting about six rows behind Coburn and his father. Flight attendants gave him a medical kit, and Carlos gave the frenzied man a shot containing 110 milligrams of Valium and 50 milligrams of Benadryl.

Coburn's father told flight attendants his son had a history of mental problems. He was not a terrorist, just a "disturbed man," Carlos said.

Emergency Crews Greet Plane

Passengers were upset that Coburn was able to open the cockpit door so easily, even though security was supposed to have been tightened in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Everyone is on edge at the airports and on the plane already just because of what happened," Carlos said.

The FBI said there were no air marshals on the plane and that the cockpit door had not been reinforced yet.

Two jet fighters escorted the plane to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, where it landed safely. Although the fighters were there to protect them, many passengers found the sight unnerving, Carlos said.

The most frightening thing was that when we looked out the windows at one point there were two F-16s beside us, following us," he said. "We all thought that was it. We were dead."

The flight was met by police, fire engines and FBI agents.

Coburn was charged with interfering with a flight crew, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He appeared today before a federal magistrate in Chicago, and was ordered held until a bail hearing scheduled for Monday.

‘Nobody Knew’

Carlos praised the crew's calm during the scare.

"The stewardess was great and very calm," Carlos said. "She told us all that the passenger had been subdued and he was down. But everyone was still totally frightened and the goodbyes on the cell phones kept going."

Carlos said flight attendants should be given more training on how to use the sedatives in the medical kits. "They should educate the stewardesses as to what is in the medical kits," he said. "Nobody knew. And the cockpit door wasn't even locked. It was closed, but not locked."

Is Carlos getting on another plane soon?

"I took this flight in part to squelch my fears and then this happened," he said. "I will think twice before I decide to get on another flight."