“He complained about being shot with darts during the entire flight,” passenger Jacques Roizen told CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco.
“He never threatened any individual on the plane. He didn’t threaten to blow up the plane. He didn’t threaten to divert the plane. He was just saying he had information relating to Ed Snowden,” passenger Peter Jones added.
“He said he worked for the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and he was being detained by the CIA and was being transferred and his life was in danger,” Jones told Diamond.
The situation got pretty unnerving in a hurry, passengers said.
“All of a sudden, there’s a guy screaming about national security, CIA, covert operations,” said Roizen, of Manhattan.
Via NY CBS
…
A man who said he was on the same flight as the unruly passenger and recorded the incident with his phone played the audio for reporters. The passenger who recorded the clip did not wish to give his name.
On the recording the man who caused the incident screamed and repeated “I’m dead” 23 times.
“Snowden? No, he’s right! I know this now, I know this because of what just happened to me. He’s totally right,” the disruptive passenger said, then continued to rant about the NSA.
Jones said he never heard the man threaten passengers or the plane. While the plane was still in the air the FBI said the man had claimed everyone aboard the plane was being poisoned, but the agency later said it was working to clarify what the man said.
“He said something that people are going to poison him, that he was going to die,” Jones said.
On the recording the man claimed to work for the government.
“You work for the CIA! If you work for the National Reconnaissance Office, you will not get a trial by jury. You will not get a trial by jury. They think I’ve done something wrong, put me in front of a judge,” he said, “say I’m guilty.”
In the audio the man claimed to be “dead already, they’re gonna kill me.”
Via Washington Post
“Please God, somebody help me, please somebody help me, somebody help me,” the man is heard screaming on an audio clip that was recorded with a passenger’s smartphone.
“I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead!” the man repeats over and over again.
Roizen said he and several other passengers tackled the agitated man and helped flight attendants handcuff him. They helped keep him settled in place until the plane landed five hours later.
Via Fox NY
He was screaming something to the effect that he had information about something Edward Snowden released, and that he had information for the U.S. but he was being hussled away by the CIA and being taken away to some safehouse, never to be seen again.
He did not seem excessively disturbed. He was not running up and down the aisles. He was not attempting to hurt anyone. He was not moving about in any agitated fashion.
He was just yelling in a loud voice to make certain that everyone heard him.
