A hero Marine has told how he “slammed” a crazy-looking passenger to the ground to stop him from opening their plane’s door mid-flight, then zip-tied him to a seat while the flight made an emergency diversion.
Jody Armentrout, a sergeant major who has served more than 20 years in the US Marine Corps, said the unidentified passenger caught his attention on Saturday morning’s All Nippon Airways flight from Japan to Texas when he took down his backpack and went aimlessly from bathroom to bathroom.
“He came out of that one and began pacing up and down the aisle, so that just threw my radar on,” the 50-year-old Marine told NBC News.
“His eyes — you could definitely tell there was something going on.”
Keeping a close watch on the crazed-looking passenger, Armenault said he watched him start to eye up the emergency exit beside him.
The Marine stood up and blocked the door — just for the other passenger to turn around and burst through the galley toward the door on the opposite side.
“He grabbed a strap around the door, pulled it off, and about that time is when I took him and slammed him, put him on the ground,” Armentrout told the outlet.
“And then there was an older gentleman sitting on that side [who] woke up, and he got up and kind of helped me.”
Armentrout then used zip ties to secure the troubled passenger to his seat as the Houston-bound flight was instead diverted to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington.
He sat next to him for the remainder of the flight from Japan, where the Marine is based.
The unidentified passenger was experiencing a medical crisis, officials have said.
He was taken to a hospital and had not been charged as of Wednesday.
The Marine said he felt compelled to act to save others onboard — including babies — with some of the other passengers later thanking him for his potentially life-saving response.
“I just knew he was up to something crazy, and at the end of the day, I was willing to take the risk of him saying ‘I’m not doing anything’ and then just them making him go sit back down than me allowing him to do anything that’s going to put anybody at risk,” Armentrout told NBC News.
It was not the end of the drama on the flight. When the plane landed in Seattle, another passenger ” frustrated at the flight diversion” punched a bathroom door, according to the FBI’s Seattle field office.
That person, not publicly identified, was also removed by the Port of Seattle Police from the flight, but has likewise not been charged as of Wednesday.
“It was a weird flight,” said Armentrout, who will be heading back to Japan next week.
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